The Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, Mr Richard Quashigah, has criticised the government for amending of the Local Governance Act (Amendment Bill 2017), which restored the power of the President to revoke the appointment of government appointees to district assemblies.
The amendment was passed by Parliament on January 31, 2017.
Mr Quashigah said the Majority also demonstrated bad faith by supporting the amendment of the bill which was passed in the last month of the last Parliament.
He told the Daily Graphic in Accra that the Majority is demonstrating tyranny because they knew too well that this was a law passed barely a month ago."
Mr Quashigah said the law had not been tried and tested, hence he wondered why the haste and rush to amend it.
"Why will you necessarily want to get one third of appointees out just to replace them and have your members in the district assembly which is not supposed to be partisan? But this demonstration from the other side is that they see it as partisan," he said.
Institutional memory
The legislator said the appointees, who constituted a third of the assembly members, had worked in harmony with the elected members and therefore, had rich institutional memory, which was crucial for the work of the assemblies.
Mr Quashigah said the new government appointees to the assemblies might not have the relevant experience to support the elected members to take decisions.
"What will happen will be that only two thirds of members at the assembly level will be competent enough to take decisions.
"These are people who are going to be watching and observing for some time. It will affect the flow of business at the district assembly," he said.
Power of President
Mr Quashigah said when the Local Governance Act was being passed, it was considered that the Constitution had given too much power for a bad President to have.
He said the intent, therefore, was to minimise the too much power that a bad President would have at the district assembly level.
Mr Quashigah said when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) came to power in 2009, the then President John Evans Atta Mills allowed all metropolitan, municipal and district assembly executives and other appointees to stay at post for three months.
However, he said, the current government did not want the appointees to last for more than one month.
Source: Daily Graphic
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U NDC u must understand u were humiliated big time at polls so u better keep quite ohh
I'm really lost. What logic is Mr. Quashiga talking about? The persons are government appointees and they form a third of the Assembly. Government has changed and you want the old appointees to stay on? How would they fit into the agenda of the new government? Was it necessary to have passed that Act in the first place to retain appointees of a non-performing gov't at the Assembly? Please let the majority rule. We voted for change so let the change be seen and felt across.
Prof Mills took about three months to form his government so he did not have much choice. Nana Addo has taken just about a month to settle in so that is to be expected. NDC wants to have control even in minority. You can have your say but that is it. The majority will rule like it happened during the NDC era.
Quashiga if u dnt understand go and burn the sea wai...mtweee
please give us a break. We saw worst things under Doe Adjaho. Democracy is about numbers and you now find yourself reeling under lack of adequate numbers, please keep quiet. Because somebody insulted John Mahama, and so what? Keep shut your mouth and let us reason on very important issues.