Poor Internet linkage obstructs parliamentary work

The Parliament of Ghana is to investigate the poor Internet linkage that is negatively affecting its work, for some time now, especially since it came back from recess five weeks ago.

Internet connections are down or interrupted for long hours and evens days in the Chamber Block, denying both Members and Staff of Parliament access to the Internet information that could be used for parliamentary work.

It has been difficult for a number of legislators, staff and auxiliary staff of the House to depend on internet services within the Chamber Block of the House, making them to personally bear the cost of accessing the net, by using their pocket money to recharge airtime credit for their electronic devices for work in the House.

Against this background, Ras Mubarak, MP for Kumbungu and Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee and some parliamentary staff have hailed a proposed invitation of the Minister of Communication to answer a question as to why the Internet Service keeps fluctuating or remained down for some time.

According to the Business Statement for the Sixth Week ending Friday, December 7, 2018, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Bezrah, MP for Ho West, is scheduled on Tuesday, 4th December 2018 “to ask the Minister of Communications whether the Ministry was aware that service contract agreement between the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) and the Parliamentary Service for the provision of 155MB internet link to serve all buildings within the precincts of Parliament has fallen below the required standard.”

If the Minister is aware, the Ho West MP would probe further to know “what remedial action has the Ministry taken to correct is it.”

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Ras Mubarak, the legislator, hailed the invitation of the Minister to the House, explaining that the exigencies of work of an MP requires that he or she had up-to-date and latest information to work with, but the inability to access the internet from the chamber block of the House was rather not the best.

The MP, himself a former broadcast journalist, bemoaned how difficult it was for journalists covering proceedings in the House to quickly send a breaking news to its media house with such poor internet connectivity.

Sampled views from the Parliamentary Press Corps, Audio Visual and the Hansard Departments regretted the interruption of internet services in the Chamber Block, as it affected the transmission of images, conduct of research on computers and delayed general work.

Respondents commended Speaker Prof Aaron Michael Oquaye for reforms to achieve an e-parliament and called for the laying of fibre optic connections to enhance internet linkage in the House.

Source: GNA

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