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{
    "id": 114949,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/114949/?format=api",
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    "content": "membership of the House, I welcome you to the State Opening of the Fourth Session of the Tenth Parliament today. Your Excellency, this day is specially set aside by practice, tradition and custom at your disposal to pronounce to the Nation the Government’s legislative agenda during the on-coming Session. I wish, however, advisedly, to make use of this unique and important opportunity to say a few things about the Legislature and the Parliamentary Service Commission. To begin with, I thank Your Excellency for your generous and unflinching support you have personally given to the Parliamentary Service Commission over the years, including officially launching the Commission’s Strategic Plan for the period 2008-2018 on 13th February last year at the Safari Park Hotel. The Strategic Plan summarizes the reforms the Commission intends to carry out in the Legislative arm of Government so that our people can have a Parliament that is empowered to make laws that will anchor and promote good governance and assist the country to attain Vision 2030. We live in a fast changing world such that Parliament is obligated to enact laws that enable it keep abreast with adequate capacity to discharge its constitutional mandate effectively and remain relevant in step with the citizenry responsive to the latter’s concerns and tribulations. The Parliamentary Service Commission is committed to ensuring that Parliament remains a public watchdog with teeth to bite any public servant unwilling to conduct public affairs in accordance with the law. In particular, Agenda Four of the National Accord has specific targets which the National Assembly is expected to actualize. These include electronic voting and live television and radio broadcasts of the proceedings of the House and its Committees. I am happy to report that we have had the necessary financial and technical support from the Government to carry out extensive renovation of the Chamber to facilitate the smooth installation of the requisite equipment to make this happen. The renovation works will soon commence and the sittings of the House will shift to the old Chamber which is much smaller than where we are. The renovation is expected to last roughly one year and I plead that Honourable Members gracefully bear some inconveniences that are unavoidable in a project of this nature. It is worthy of mention and significant for the House and, indeed, the whole country, to note that when the Commission was first established in 2000, Your Excellency was among the first ten Commissioners. Your pioneering role in the Commission was instructive in laying the firm foundation that I and my colleagues ten Commissioners found when I became the Chairman two years ago. We are proud of your ineligible role in pioneering execution of the Commission’s mandate. This, to me, explains why the Parliamentary Service Commission and the Executive arm of the Government have largely read from the same script with respect to implementation of projects since you ascended to the leadership of this country. We commend you, Your Excellency, for the warm understanding and close co-operation that we have enjoyed with your Government. Although prima facie the House would seem to have passed fewer Bills during the 3rd Session than it did in the 2nd Session, the House was instrumental in consolidating our nationhood and cohesion by jump-starting the operations of the various Commissions to commence and carry out their specific mandates either contained in the Agenda Four"
}