Committees of Parliament
THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE SYSTEM IN GHANA
The development of the Committee System in our Legislature
A device to ensure efficient despatch of Parliament's business is the Committee System by which the House is divided into Committees covering all areas of socio-economic programmes, such as policies and activities of the Executive. It has been observed that it is at the Committee 1evel that a Member does his real work.
The Committee System after the First Republic
The 1969 Constitution gave prominence to the Committee System. Having carefully watched the legislative process of the First Republic, where a large number of Bills were passed on Certificates of Urgency, the Constitution framers of 1969, 1979 and 1992 decided that the Legislature should hasten slowly in making laws. The public was sometimes unaware of the Bills passed on Certificates of Urgency. The Constitution-makers recognized that the Legislature had an educational value to the people and therefore wide publicity must be given to the law-making process and the public made to participate as fully as was consistent with sound parliamentary practice.
The Constitutions of 1969, 1979 and 1992 made it compulsory for any Bill introduced in the House for the First Reading to be referred to the appropriate Committee of the House which would examine the Bill in detail and make any inquiries which it considered expedient. The report of the Committee with the explanatory memorandum would form the basis of debate and eventual passage of the Bill with or without amendments or its rejection.
Membership of Committees
Members of both Standing and Select Committees are nominated by the Committee of Selection whose Chairman is the Speaker. The Committee has to ensure that party strengths on the Committees reflect those in the House itself in accordance with the provisions of our Constitution. This has two effects:
First, it would mean that the small parties in the House and the Independent Members may not qualify for a place on the Committees which are of interest to them. Second, it would mean that when the party members in the House are fairly, equally divided the majority party in a Standing or Select Committee would be minimal; it may not be sufficiently strong to prevent Bills being amended in a manner unacceptable to Ministers.
Advantages of the Committee System
The functions of Committees include the scrutiny of legislation, the scrutiny of finance and oversight of the Executive. The effectiveness of Parliament may therefore be measured by the quality of work of its Committees in these and other areas. One of the several merits of the' Parliamentary Committee System is the opportunity for dialogue between legislators and the public. It is not possible for the public to "participate in debates on the floor of the Chamber. But in a Committee the public may be permitted to present memoranda and be heard by the Committee. Such public hearings have educational value for Parliament and the publicity given to the hearings and to the Committee's report on the subject in turn educate the public about the condition of the society.
The Committees also enable the Legislature to scrutinise the activities of the Executive most effectively, especially in the area of legislation. Business on the floor of the House has always been controlled by the need to get certain legislations through, while at the same time allowing a number of other parliamentary processes to take place. As a result the House is often hard pressed to find time on the floor to examine a matter of national importance when it first occurs. If a Select Committee is given terms of reference to deal with the matter in question, it can find sufficient time to delve deep into the matter without encroaching on the time of the House.
Another merit of the Committee System is that it enables Members to gain experience of a subject so as to exert influence that they would not otherwise have; this way, they specialize in their fields. Again, work done on a Committee, especially on Public Accounts is less partisan than that done on the floor. The Committees seek to reduce the area that Governments wish to keep secret. This way Committees hold Government accountable, though imperfectly; and even in cases where Committees divide strongly much information has already been revealed which would otherwise have been likely to remain secret.
