The Ranking Member on the Parliament's Education Committee, Peter Norstu-Kotoe has assured that the Committee will engage the leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) on the Public Universities Bill (PUB) which has been re-laid before Parliament.

This comes after the Association had intimated that the Education Minister had blindsided them by re-laying the Bill before Parliament yesterday, months after it was withdrawn.

According to the President of UTAG, Prof. Charles Ofosu Marfo they had received assurances by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education that amendments UTAG had made to the initial document would be sent back to the Association for review.

They were however surprised and disappointed to hear that the Bill had been re-presented to Parliament for review yesterday without their knowledge.

But speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story Tuesday, Mr Norstu-Kotoe stated that the Education Minister had assured the Committee that all the relevant stakeholders had been consulted and engaged and had come to a consensus, as such a re-engagement of the stakeholders was unnecessary.

"The Minister assured us that all the concerns of the various stakeholders had been taken on board, and they were even part of the re-writing of the Bill, so we felt as a Committee that given that assurance, there was no need for us to call the stakeholder-engagement any further.”

He, however, admitted that it was an error on their part not to engage UTAG on the Bill a second time before it was presented to Parliament yesterday.

"We felt strongly that looking at the Bill, most of the concerns raised by the various stakeholders were taken on board, but the error in the exercise was that there was no second engagement again."

That notwithstanding, he revealed that subsequent to the second reading of the Bill at Parliament yesterday, it was agreed on the floor of the House that the stakeholders will be re-engaged before any further steps are taken on the Bill.

"On the floor this afternoon, the Minority Leader opposed the Bill and said that not until the stakeholder engagement was done, although we were going to have the second reading, the engagement must be done, the report brought to the house before we can continue to the consideration stage, and that was the agreement we came to on the floor today."

The MP for Akatsi North also indicated that the Committee will take immediate steps to engage stakeholders on Wednesday. December 16.