This fell far short of the 15 Bills forecast for presentation by the President in his speech opening this Second Session of Parliament last year; nor did it include the reform legislative agenda referred to in STERP and the Prime Ministers Speeches, upon which so much foreign investment is depending.
Standing Orders envisage work continuing until 7 pm, but very seldom did either House sit after 5 pm. There were a significant number of short sittings, when one or other of the Houses met only to adjourn after sitting for less than an hour and sometimes after 10 minutes.
The Session was also marked by long adjournments six weeks over the Christmas-New Year period, and a premature adjournment for more than three months from March onwards to allow legislators to take part in the Constitution outreach programme which eventually only started at the end of June.
In what was seen as a sign of back bench frustration over the failure of the Inclusive Government to bring forward Bills aimed at restoring basic freedoms, MDC-T Chief Whip Innocent Gonese introduced a Private Members Bill to amend the Public Order and Security Act, having first been granted permission to do so by the House of Assembly. As the Bill had not been passed by the time the Second Session came to an end it automatically lapsed.
A key Parliamentary power over the Executive is its power to approve or disapprove the Budget, but it is not effectively wielded in practice. Although there were some pre-Budget consultations before the main 2010 Budget, Parliament ended up fast tracking and rubber-stamping the presented Budget with dissatisfaction about Ministerial allocations raised in post-Budget Portfolio Committees, too late to make changes.
Several sub-committee reports were being finalised for presentation when the Session ended. It is unfortunate that these could not be presented as it means they cannot now be made public.. The committees appointed for the new Session can adopt the work done by their predecessors and it is to be hoped that this will happen, in order to make committee work already done available for public information but even if it does happen, much time will have been lost and some content may be out of date or of limited relevance.
Tensions between the Executive and Legislature were often evident. There was a reluctance from some ministries to cooperate with the committees responsible for their oversight. The Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy had its frequently planned visit to the Chiadzwa diamond fields obstructed. The Speaker described this as unacceptable.
The Chiadzwa diamond fields are a national resource, it is therefore Parliament’s obligation to play its oversight role and scrutinize the exploitation of the resource on behalf of the nation. There is urgent need to clear all existing misunderstandings in line with the doctrine of Separation of Powers, so as to ensure the smooth running of Parliamentary activities without any interference and intimidation. –
Post published in: News