The Statistics Bill, 2018 has gone through the Second Reading after it was presented at the Plenary for the first time.
The Seconding Reading of the Bill was moved by the Deputy Minister for Finance and Member of Parliament for Obuase West, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng, on behalf of the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta.
The Statistics Bill, 2018 was presented to the House on December 11, 2018 and was subsequently referred to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance, for consideration and report.
The purpose of the Bill is to establish the Statistical Service as the central statistics producing and co-ordinating institution for the National Statistical System.
The Statistics Bill, 2018 is made up of sixty-one clauses and four schedules.
Presenting the Committee’s report at the Plenary, the Chairman for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance and Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, indicated that the Committee expressed concern about the quality of some data disseminated in the country, and was of the opinion that data were either of poor quality or disseminated late.
He informed the House that the Deputy Minister for Finance agreed with the concern and indicated that the promulgation of the Bill is to address the aforementioned challenges.
Dr. Assibey-Yeboah stated that the Deputy Finance Minister told the Committee that part of the functions of the Service as provided for in the Bill is to ensure the production of quality statistics with respect to relevance, accuracy and reliability, coherence and comparability, sustainability, timeliness and integrity, among others.
The Committee’s attention was drawn to the need for the Government Statistician to have unfettered powers to decide, in respect of the activities of the Statistics on the manner in which, and the time when, a statistical collection is to be undertaken; the form, extent and timing of the release of statistical information; or whether a statistical collection should be disconnected.
The Committee noted that even though the independence was necessary and consistent with international best practice, it must be subject to Article 186 of the Constitution.
The Committee also observed that the Bill makes provision for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to submit data to the Ghana Statistical Service.
The Committee noted that the provision would help address issues of duplication of data as well as inconsistencies.
Further, data would be effectively managed by the Ghana Statistical Service for use by all stakeholders.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
