What was expected to be a familiar practice — the laying of a paper — by the outgoing Minister of Education, Mr Alexander Tettey-Enyo, turned into a protracted debate on the critical issue of how long outgoing ministers should remain in office. After the debate had taken the whole day's business, during which Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Minority side argued that Mr Tettey-Enyo was no longer a minister, the Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, proffered a compromise that allowed the outgoing Minister of Youth and Sports, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, to lay the paper. The Minority had stood its ground, despite the insistence by the Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka, that notwithstanding the recently announced Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Tettey-Enyo was still in office. Mr Avoka had informed the House that the President had directed ministers who had been reshuffled or removed from office to hand over to incoming ministers by January 21, 2011 and, therefore, requested that Mr Tettey-Enyo be allowed to lay the Tertiary Institutions (Establishment and Accreditation) Regulations, 2010 (Legislative Instrument (LI) 1984) Bill. When the MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, caught the eye of the Speaker, he stated that the issue was one which demanded a thorough discussion and a decision by Parliament, since the President did not attach a date to the recent reshuffle of his Cabinet. "Madam Speaker, Parliament is not aware that the President had issued a directive to the reshuffled and sacked ministers to hand over by January 21, 2011," he said, arguing that in so far as Parliament had oversight responsibility over the Executive, it should have been informed about such a directive. He stated that the matter before the House was not a personal one, since "it is a serious business and a matter that should be of concern to all". Papa Owusu-Ankomah said the country needed to improve on its governance system, explaining that if something was not done right in the past, it did not mean that it should not be done right now. "Madam Speaker, it is not my intention to embarrass Mr Tettey-Enyo, who is a fine gentleman," he said, adding that his action was meant to tighten certain loose ends in the country's governance system. He told the House that in the previous administration, the signature of a reshuffled minister who had not handed over had been rejected by a certain country and called for Parliament's definite position on the matter. For his part, the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Ambrose Dery, stated that "once Minister A is moving from portfolio A to portfolio B, it should take immediate effect, except when the President, in making the announcement, attached a deadline". "Madam Speaker, I wonder whether, in this case, Mr Tettey-Enyo is a minister or not," he said, arguing that to him, Mr Tettey-Enyo was no longer a minister and called for the right thing to be done. When the Majority Leader, Mr Avoka, caught the eye of the Speaker, he told the House that the matter was very simple and wondered why the Minority was making a mountain out of a molehill. He said the announcement on the reshuffle did not say that the action should take immediate effect and that an administrative directive had been issued for the affected ministers to hand over by January 21,2011. But Mr Dery suggested that another Minister of State be allowed to lay the paper in order to end the matter. The Second Deputy Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, stated that since the Majority Leader was not a Minister of State, it was impossible for him to inform Parliament about a Cabinet directive that had not been communicated to the House. He said Mr Avoka only referred to the said directive from his personal knowledge, adding that in the absence of any such directive, another minister should be allowed to lay the paper. In her ruling, Mrs Justice Bamford-Addo advised the Majority Leader to impress on the President to attach dates to announcements to the public and communications to the House on reshuffles, since that was the feeling of the House. As a compromise, Ms Dansua was made to lay the paper. Source: Daily Graphic