He noted that since January 2017, chairpersons and clerks on the various parliamentary committees who attended conferences and meetings on behalf of Parliament had failed to submit reports on such trips to the House.

Speaking at the commencement of the third meeting of the third session of the seventh Parliament, Prof. Ocquaye, stated that it was mandatory for committees to present detailed reports of events that took place at all conferences for evaluation.

“Thus, delegations are reminded that reports are required of them after participating in these trips to serve as a bank of knowledge for this august House,” he stated.

Sanction

Prof. Ocquaye stated that legislators were expected to put the knowledge they had acquired through those international exchanges at the disposal of the House but they were also required to file reports on such foreign trips.

According to him, those reports were the property of Parliament that were needed to help build a serious House, saying that “We require both hard and soft copies please.”

“Indeed, anyone who fails to comply with the directive will be sanctioned. I must add that this is also the responsibility of the chairman of committees.

“I must add that my office is demanding reports on all conferences since January 2017 to be filed in my office before the end of the year. Those committees which do not oblige should not expect to travel anymore anyway,” he warned.

Conferences

The Speaker stated that as had been the practice, members and staff of the House during recesses participated in a number of global conferences in connection with their parliamentary duties.

He said pivotal among them was the 141st Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly which took place in Belgrade, Serbia, from October 13 to 17, 2019.

He said he personally led Ghana’s Parliamentary delegation to present an African perspective and placed firmly on the agenda of global parliaments, how best IPU could conceptualise, interrogate and tackle contemporary problems including climate change, nuclear race, poverty and health issues which deepened the old economic paradigm of dependency in Africa, with special reference to Ghana and protectionist measures to help the country’s infant industries to grow.

He also mentioned the fifth annual general meeting of the African Parliamentarians Network on Development Evaluation, Abidjan, 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Kampala, Uganda and the 7th Public Accounts Symposium in UK among other conferences.