Management of IEA calls for passage of Presidential
Transition Bill
Accra, Oct. 13, Ghanadot/GNA - The management of Institute
of Economic Affairs (IEA Ghana), a public policy institute,
on Monday called on Government to expedite action for the
passage of a Presidential Transitional arrangement before
the December 7 polls.
“As the nation prepares for another political transfer of
power in January 2009, the Bill must be passed to forestall
the operational challenges the 2000 Transitional Team
encountered, creating the grounds for suspicion,” Mr Kwamena
Ahwoi, IEA Ghana Political Consultant stated in Accra.
Schooling journalists on the Democracy Consolidation
Strategy Paper (DCSP), which would be officially launched on
October 15 this year, Mr Ahwoi said the rancorous nature of
the handing over process from the NDC administration to NPP
in 2001, must be avoided with the passage of the Bill.
Mr Ahwoi, member of the three-man consultants that worked on
the paper,said the animosity resulted in the development of
deep seated hostility between the out-going and in-coming
government, which had continued over the past eight years.
"That unfortunate state of affairs demands that as a country
we put in place, now, and for the future, a mechanism that,
it is hoped, would induce some measure of accommodation and
co-operation," Mr Ahwoi stated.
The management of IEA Ghana and Ghana Political Parties
Programme proposed a President Succession Arrangements Bill
which seeks to establish the arrangements for the political
transfer of administration from one democratically elected
President to another.
The Bill also seeks to create a more pleasant transfer of
the reins of government from an administration to another in
a manner that would not introduce needless strain between
the in-coming and out-going government.
“The Bill would help forge national reconciliation, lower
the political tension and promote inter-party co-operation.
The 2001 experience provides lessons and a compelling reason
for the country to rise up and clean her act of political
transfer of the reins of government," Mr Ahwoi said.
It also provided a fair measure of political accommodation
and congenial environment for public good which enabled
public services to function without undue party political
pressures.
The proposed Bill focuses on the location of responsibility,
the processes and procedures, conflict resolution, period
for the transfer, statutory welfare and protocol provisions
for other officials, security during transfer, inventory and
stock-taking and archival storage of handing over reports.
Others are the Succession Council, the functions of the
Council, meetings of the Council, co-option of members
committees, funds of the Council, meetings with Presidents,
handing over notes, availability of handing over notes,
media briefings, inventory of assets, election of Speaker
and swearing in of the President.
GNA