Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the Minority Leader in Parliament, says the high attrition rate of Members of Parliament could weaken the capacity of the house to deliver. He, therefore, called on the media to help educate the public to drop the inconsequential and untenable reasons used by constituents to build resentments against their MPs. Mr Mensah-Bonsu was addressing journalists working in the Volta Region as part of Parliament's programmed outreach to deepen democracy in the country. According to him, it was inappropriate for the media to tag an MP as "mute" just because he was not often heard on the floor of the house when that MP could be doing some crucial work behind the scenes at the committee level. Mr Mensah-Bonsu said experience "does count in Parliament's oversight and legislative responsibilities." Similarly, he said, the frequent change of Parliamentary reporters by their media organizations was equally detrimental to the quality of parliamentary reporting. He noted that Parliament was a unique place with peculiar procedures and language that required reporters to take a long time to grasp. Mr Mensah-Bonsu said Parliament was doing all it could to be more effective in its oversight duties. According to him, that could result in the Public Accounts Committee in the future moving "concurrently" with the running of the budget at the various institutions and not wait for a "post-mortem" as is the case now. Mr Mensah-Bonsu decried the propensity among some media organizations to be overly partisan in their reportage, sometimes using intemperate language. He tasked the media to take up the challenge of working to the national developmental agenda, promoting good governance and writing investigative pieces rather than tapping from the rumour mill. Mr Cletus Avorka, the Majority Leader, said the media must sensitize the public to protect the democratic process. He said Parliament considered the media as an important organ of state with a crucial role of creating a market place of ideas, criticisms and reactions to be tapped for national development. "Our roles in this endeavour are clearly outlined; we are partners in the same venture, we generate the policies and you do the dissemination of the information in the proper manner to the rest of the citizenry," he said. "How our country's future will pan out will depend on the information you give out. It is for this reason that your role becomes extremely important and for which reason I urge you to take it with all seriousness," Mr Avorka added. Mr Victor Kwawukume, Chairman of the Volta Regional chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), applauded the outreach programme albeit the delay. Source: GNA