Mr Peter Ala-Adjetey, Speaker of Parliament on Monday said recent public interest in the work of parliament especially during the vetting process with critical comments reveals the new wave of awareness engulfing the nation and expectations of the populace from public office holders.

"The growing awareness and interest of the electorate in parliamentary proceedings through participation and contribution in media, public forums and sometimes harsh criticism of individual members of the house reveals a new trend of democratic growth in the country," the Speaker said in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Kenneth Dzirasah, Second Deputy Speaker at a round table discussion on a survey report titled: "An assessment of the performance of Parliament in the fourth republic."

The nation-wide assessment carried out by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Accra, covered a sample size of 5,000 electorate and 100 MPs on the performance of Parliament between March and April 2000.

It was also to collate views from the electorate on their level of political knowledge, participation, assessments of their MPs and the work of parliament.

Mr Ala-Adjetey noted that even though parliament's main function is legislative in nature, it makes laws in a much broader framework, which involves actions that affect practically all major areas of national importance and interest.

The house has 27 committees made up of 11 standing and 16 select committees with areas of responsibilities corresponding to ministries, departments and agencies of the public sector.

The Speaker expressed concern about public perception of MPs as the agents for development while the constitution mandates the district assembles as the focal point of development in the district.

He said the erroneous perception has placed burden and extra demand on the MPs as the constituent expects him to pay the school fees of his/her child, hospital bills and at times seed money for business.

Other social demands such as attending weddings, funerals, outdooring ceremonies, and festivals, at which the MP is required to make financial contributions or donations.

"Clearly these demands put so much pressure on MPs and many find it difficult to frequently visit their constituencies."

Mr Ala-Adjetey said, "Parliament by the local government act 462 has underscored the role of district assemblies as political, administrative, planning and developmental authority at the local level.

"To enable the assemblies carry out their developmental roles, the constitution provides for a district assemblies common fund into which five per cent of all state revenue is lodged for disbursement to facilitate development at the district level."

The survey indicates that most MPs use their share of the district assemblies' common fund on school projects.

According to the survey, 83 per cent of the MPs interviewed focused their resources on school projects and in spite of not being able to deal with capital-intensive projects on the whole; the constituents were very appreciative of their efforts.

It also indicates that political issues, which border on areas such as conduct of elections, political campaign and others, were of little concern to the citizenry.

The survey indicated that there was an improvement in the relationship between the District Chief Executive and MPs. However, the relationship was not necessarily determined by the political stands of the two key players in the district.

There were MPs who belonged to the same political party as their DCE but did not get on well whilst there were some minority party MPs who got on well with their DCE.

Eastern, Greater Accra and Central regions were identified as those where the relations between DCEs and MPs were poor.

The report indicates that Parliament's performance on its deliberative and legislative functions have been more effective than its oversight and financial role due to the inability of most MP's to have sufficient time to examine loan agreements and financial statements.

Most of the respondents of the survey were of the opinion that living conditions have worsened because parliament has been ineffective in controlling government expenditure.

They called for the strengthening and empowerment of the finance committee of the house to monitor the implementation of the Auditor General's report while others were of the opinion that the issue should be taken up by the appropriate sanctioning bodies rather than parliament.

The survey also expressed concern about lack of logistics, poor remuneration and inadequate resources, which are the main constraints against effective and efficient performance of MPs.