The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has proposed two alternatives to the Members of Parliament as a way to curb lateness to their sittings on Friday, December 8, 2023.
The proposed alternatives include starting next year, doors will be closed at 10:00 AM on each sitting day and would be opened after sometime, or sitting time would be rescheduled to 2:00 PM-4:00 PM.
“At 10 am, the doors will be locked. The Speaker will be in and it will take some time before the doors will be opened. Not that they won’t be opened but it will take some time. And so if you are not able to comply with it, let us all agree that we will start sitting in the afternoon, from 2 p.m. or 4 p.m.; the Committees will have their meetings in the morning; reports will be ready for us to consider in the afternoon; and then by the time we adjourn around 8 p.m., the traffic situation will have improved”, he said.
According to the Speaker, effective from next year, Members of Parliament who arrive late will be locked out until the Speaker decides to open the doors again.
He suggested the two caucuses hold a joint meeting with their members or have discussions to come up with a proposal on how to curb issues of lateness in the house.
“Your coming to Parliament too will not be that early, so you can decide to leave at noon and by that time, there would have been less traffic and you won’t consume more fuel and then you can come in. I can see that it is not easy for members to report that early for sitting so the two Caucuses either have joint Caucus meetings or, at your level, discuss these things and come back with proposals. If not, these are the measures that I want to put in place which will take effect from our next meeting,” he added.
He emphasized that if no consensus is reached, the proposed measures will be implemented starting the next session.
