Parliamentary Network Africa dedicates a Desk to Work with the Public and Parliament on Private Members’ Bills

The Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica) has announced the creation of a dedicated desk to work collaboratively with organizations, Corporate Ghana and individuals, who are interested in bringing a Private Members’ Bill to Parliament.

A statement from the organization explained that “the decision to establish the PMBs desk was informed by the strong interest of participants for an entity that will be dedicated to work closely with Parliament to ensure that PMBs once laid in Parliament get all the needed attention from Parliament”.

Participants made this call during and after PNAfrica’s webinar to commemorate the journey so far on the adoption of a motion to start admitting Private Members’ Bill in the Parliament of Ghana.

July 16, 2021 marked exactly a year since the 7th Parliament of Ghana adopted a motion to start admitting Private Members’ Bill (PMB). This brought to an end the old regime where only the Executive arm of Government had the sole prerogative to introduce Bills in Parliament. A Private Members’ Bill, however, should not offend Article 108 and will not be categorized as what the British call “a money bill”.

The introduction of PMB has now created the enabling platform for individual Members of Parliament (MPs) who are not Ministers of State to introduce or initiate bills on the floor of the House for consideration. It also affords non-government officials, private citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) the opportunity to work with a Member of Parliament to initiate a Bill.

“Unfortunately, since the adoption of the motion to admit Private Members’ Bill last year, only one law has been passed by Parliament which was introduced and co-sponsored by Hon Ras Mubarak.

“There are, however, indications that several PMBs are in the process to be introduced in Parliament,” the statement noted.

The PNAfrica webinar sought to bring to the attention of citizens, SOs, Development Partners, and the Diplomatic Community to use PMBs to amend an existing legislation or introduce new legislation to improve the country’s governance architecture and enhance sustainable development.

It also provided the platform for citizens to be sensitized on the parliamentary procedures involved in the introduction of Private Members’ Bill.

Additionally, it offered the opportunity for experience sharing on the use of Private Members’ Bill by parliamentary monitoring organization (PMO) in Africa.

Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica) is a civil society PMO promoting Open Parliaments across Africa.