The Speaker of Parliament, Mrs. Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, has asked Mem­bers of Parliamentary (MPs) to exhibit quali­ties that will endear them to the people who gave them the mandate. She said it is only by this means that the institution of Parliament can win the sympathy and respect of the people as a credible body. Mrs. Bamford-Addo said this Tuesday when she welcomed the MPs from recess to begin the business of the second meeting of the first session of the fifth Parlia­ment. In apparent reference to current developments in the British Parliament, Mrs. Bamford-Addo said "all of us, including my good self, should draw lessons on recent developments in the oldest and most revered legislative institution that has the tendency to erode the dignity of Parliament." She said that it behoves Parliament to sit back and do a self-retrospective examination of the institution to "right whatever wrong the institution might have made either by commission or omission." The Speaker urged MPs to be guided by the national interest and expressed the hope that they (MPs) would give priority to the national cause in all their delibera­tions. Earlier, the Annual Report of the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency, which was laid before the House by the Majority leader, Alban Bagbin, was withdrawn for procedural reasons. Raising a point-of-order, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, (NPP­Sekondi) said under the Standing Order of the House, such a report must be laid by the Minister of Environment who has oversight responsibility for the agency. He said the House had, over the years, evolved practices which allowed the Majority Leader to lay papers on behalf of independent bodies. Both the Majority Leader, Mr. Bagbin and the Minority Leader, Osei-Kyei-Mensah Honsu, supported Papa Owusu Ankomah's position and the report was duly withdrawn, to be laid later by the sector minister. The paper on the proposed formula for the distribution of subsidies to be paid to licensed District Mutual Health Insurance schemes for the year 2009 could also not be laid. The Majority Leader, Mr. Bagbin, explained that there was no evidence that the reconstituted board of the National Health Insurance Authority had been sworn into office to examine the report before its submission to Parliament. The waiver of tax liability on equipment/materials to be imported or purchased locally, corporate and expatriate taxes in respect of Accra Tema Municipal Area Rural Water Supply Expansion of the (South and North Kpong) Project and the International Coffee Agreement, 2007 were all laid before the House. Source: Ghanaian Times