Parliament should enact law to guide transitions

Accra, Oct. 28, GNA - Mr Nii Noi Thompson, an Economist, on Tuesday suggested that Parliament should consider the enactment of a legal framework to guide future transitional periods after elections. He said that such a framework would help institutionalise transitional practices and provide useful and unambiguous framework for assessing transitional situations.

"The 2001 transitional team operated without any legal framework. The entire process was thus guided by the exigencies of the time and the needs of the incoming government", Mr Thompson stated on the second day of a three-day public colloquium in Accra.

The colloquium under the theme: "Towards Smooth Democratic Regime Transitions in Ghana," is being organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Centre for Democratic Development - Ghana.

Mr Thompson said, even though, the 2001 transition was that of general euphoria and great expectations and stood in sharp contrast to previous ones, there were important lessons from the transitional period that needed to be documented to guide future processes.

Mr Thompson, who was speaking on: "Financial Sector Transfer," noted that the formal transfer of the Ministry of Finance's "hand-over notes" did not deal with the nitty-gritty of the nation's finances at the time of the transition due to the time frame given to the outgoing Minister by the transitional team.

He said that after a government had been sworn-in, out-going Ministers should be given at least three months to adequately prepare and supply the required information in their hand-over notes to incoming officials.

Mr Moses Asaga, Member of Parliament Nabdam and Minority Spokesman on Finance, said the lapses in handing-over notes at the Ministry of Finance to the present Minister was due to time constraints because the past Government had only five-days to do so and vacate the post. He suggested that the transition period should be a month or two after the swearing-in of a new government.

Some participants were of the view that since no one can hold on to power permanently, Ministers should prepare their handing over notes three months prior to the end of their term of office.

Others were of the view that the various ministries should as a matter of principle document transactions and projects, to make for easy access to information when required.