Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has explained the reason why he moved for the withdrawal of the Office of Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 and the Zongo Development Fund Bill, 2017, from parliament
They were laid in Parliament on July 14 and 15 respectively for consideration.
The bills were laid under certificates of urgency but the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs tasked to determine the urgency of the Special Prosecutor Bill and the joint Committee of Finance and Local Government and Rural Development, which was also charged to determine the urgency of the Zongo Development Fund Bill, recommended that the two bills are not urgent in nature and would therefore need further consultations with stakeholders before they are introduced in Parliament.
The government, in line with those recommendations, withdrew the bills.
The majority leader said the government would be re-laying the bills later after all the necessary consultations had been done.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show, ‘Dwaso Nsem’ on Thursday, the Suame MP explained that the withdrawal became necessary in order for it to meet the 14 day period required for a Bill published in the gazette to stay before its introduction in Parliament.
Throwing more light on the reason behind the withdrawal, Mr Mensah-Bonsu argued that, once the Bills was not urgent in nature and would go through the usual legal legislative procedure, it was important that it they were withdrawn so they can satisfy the 14 days that a gazetted Bill must go through before being laid in Parliament.
“Initially we shot down the request from the Minority to withdraw the bill but after careful considerations, we believe it will be right to withdraw them so they satisfy the mandatory time period.
“Again, we were forced to withdraw them because of the fire outbreak at job 600 since we needed enough time to deal with the issue before any vital issue is put before parliament,” he stressed.
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