NCCE assesses performance of Parliament

Story: Doreen Allotey
THE National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is conducting a research to assess the performance of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
The study is aimed at finding out the extent to which Members of Parliament (MPs) are performing their constitutional roles and to what extent they have been meeting the expectations of the people they represent in Parliament.
The results of the study, which will cost the commission GH¢19,000, is expected to be ready by the end of September, this year.
In an interview in Accra yesterday, the Director of Research of the NCCE, Mrs Gertrude Zakaria Ali, said that 24 people from 60 out of the 230 constituencies will answer questionnaires for the survey and 100 parliamentarians of that Parliament will be interviewed.
She said the main objective was to improve upon democratic governance in the country by “getting feedback from the people in whom the sovereignty of the state resides but which they have ceded to the MPs as their representatives”.
Mrs Zakaria Ali said it was the second time that the study was being conducted. The first was conducted in 2000, when the performance of the Second Parliament of the Fourth Republic was assessed.
That study found, among other things, that the majority of the people were not interacting with their MPs and that some of them did not even know who their MPs were.
It also found out that the relationship between MPs and District Chief Executives was not very good and that the participation of MPs in district assemblies was not encouraging.
The study noted that the reason for those lapses was partly attributed to the fact that unit committees were not in place in many constituencies.
Those interviewed also stressed the need for MPs to have research assistants to improve interaction between them and the people they represented in Parliament.
The Deputy Chairman in charge of Programmes of the NCCE, Mr Baron Amoafo, stated that 60 civic education staff members of the commission were trained to administer the questionnaires.
He said it was necessary to train the staff to ensure that the quality of the primary data collected from the field was reliable.
Mr Amoafo said the study would also provide the platform for constituents and Members of Parliament to improve upon governance in the constituencies and the nation as a whole.