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{
    "id": 1375313,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1375313/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 181,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. As we go to Order No.8, I rise to seek your guidance on tabling and contents of Committee Reports regarding Bills. Although what I am saying arises from my observation on the Bill we are discussing I think we, as a House, should address that issue. Firstly, we tend to get Reports very late. Often, Members do not get time to benefit from what Committees have worked on and the stakeholder issues raised. Secondly, most of the Reports I have seen relating to Bills are normally done in very clear fashions. The stakeholder meetings are reported verbatim. Thereafter, we have schedules of observations and recommendations. In the case of a Bill, you will have a schedule of amendments. It makes it very easy for Members not to go through all the details of the stakeholder discussions but rather focus on these and make quick decisions. That was missing in this Report. One has to go through all reports of discussions from a particular group and then get Committee observations. In the end, we do not get good clearance. Why do I raise those two issues on tabling and contents of Committee reports? When you have very important Bills like this one, the Committee’s work guides Members’ discussion. Therefore, we may have to go into the rules of procedure of the House and go back to say that we cannot have Bills discussed before a committee gives a report and a time of maybe two days before the discussion starts. In exceptional cases, we can do that with the leave of the Speaker. I thought I would raise this because I am finding the use of committee reports being eroded. That is a very important bit of legislation at the committee stage. I have noted it before. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}