The Accra High Court has directed all parties in a case challenging the approval process of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill to file their written submissions.
This was after the case was adjourned to July 29, 2024.
The plaintiff, Paul Boama Sefa, who is a farmer, in his writ accused Speaker Alban Bagbin of breaching the law when he allowed for the bill to be taken through the approval process.
He specifically mentioned that the Speaker did not adhere to the dictates of the Public Financial Management Act.
He says the bill did not have an accompanying fiscal impact analysis stating the estimated effect on revenues and expenditures for the financial year it is to be passed, in contravention of Section 100(1) of the Public
Financial Management Act.
The plaintiff has four weeks from today, Monday, June 3, 2024, to file their submissions.
The defendants, including the speaker of parliament and the Attorney-General, will then file their respective submissions after the plaintiff files his written submissions.
Background
Paul Boama Sefa in May 2023 dragged the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to court over the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
Mr. Sefa, a farmer in the Ashanti Region in his writ noted that the Speaker and the Attorney General have violated the constitution in the handling of the Proper Sexual Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
He argued that, Parliament did not conduct a fiscal impact analysis of the Bill given its financial implication.
He stated that provisions of section 100(1) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2026 (Act 921), which requires that the Bill shall be accompanied by a fiscal impact analysis when the Bill was first laid in Parliament, was not complied with and has still not been complied with.
He is alleging that the failure of the Speaker of Parliament to exercise the provisions of the law was intentional given his firm determination to allow the Bill to go through the legislative process despite being fully aware of the statutory conditions precedent for laying the Bill.
He is therefore seeking an order directed at the Speaker, his deputies, his agents, assigns and privies from proceeding with any processes related to the Bill until the statutory provisions of section 100(1) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2026 (921) are complied with.
He is also praying the court to order the Speaker, his deputies, his agents and privies to ensure compliance with section 100(1) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) before any further steps are taken in respect of the Bill.
He further wants a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further breaches of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) plus any other relief the court may deem fit.
By: Rainbowradioonline com/Ghana
