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{
    "id": 1014346,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1014346/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 237,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Godfrey Osotsi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13172,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Osotsi",
        "slug": "godfrey-osotsi"
    },
    "content": "challenge is court cases that arise in the middle of our examination of some reports and in some instances, immediately some reports are adopted by the House. This has slowed down some of the work we do as a Committee. Some of the court cases are unnecessary. Sometimes they are a way of interfering with Parliamentary independence. Just like Parliament does not deal with matters which are of sub judice in nature, it is not proper for courts to appear like they issue injunctions to stop Parliament from carrying out its responsibilities. A case in point is that of the Mombasa Cement, which has been pending in the Committee for almost a year now because of a flurry of cases that keep coming up. Another challenge is on the quality of recommendations. At one point, the former Leader of the Majority Party alluded to the fact that we would need to retrain our clerks, so that recommendations contained in committee reports are specific and actionable. Sometimes it is very difficult for the Committee on Implementation to deal with recommendations that are vague. If you give recommendations that are vague, you should expect to get a vague answer. That has been one of the challenges. So, moving forward, I would like to recommend that committees, through the clerks, focus on giving us recommendations that are specific and to the point. Another issue is on notification from the Clerk’s Office. The Standing Orders say that this Committee can take up a matter 60 days after that matter has been adopted by the House. We find ourselves engaging in a fishing expedition, looking for what to handle. What should happen is that 60 days after a matter has been dispensed with by the House, the Clerk’s Office needs to write to the Committee and say: “We have a particular Question that was asked in the House and these were the responses, these were the undertakings and the Committee should deal with it.” However, in most cases, we have to look for that information ourselves. We need a seamless process from the Clerk’s Office in this regard. Another challenge is petitions from aggrieved parties. We make recommendations here and then one of the parties, who may have been adversely mentioned, goes to court because he was not given a chance to be heard. We have seen implementation of petitions hampered in that manner. Some reports have been passed in this House but the resolutions could not be implemented. An example is the resolution on the Sugar Report."
}