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"content": "REPORT ON SALE OF GRAND REGENCY HOTEL SHOULD BE TABLED IN ACCORDANCE WITH RULES AND PROCEDURE Hon. Members, I have two communications to make. The first one is in respect of the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel. Hon. Members will recall that on Thursday 7th August, 2008 Mr. Okemo, Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, on behalf of the Committee, made an earnest bid to lay on the Table of the House the report on the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel. The Chair made a ruling on the matter, whose net effect was to disallow the tabling of the report on the premises of non-compliance with the rules and/or practice of the House. I have since received a representation from the Committee, drawing my attention to the matter and seeking my direction on it. Hon. Members, Standing Order No.162(2) provides that a report of a Select Committee, together with the minutes of the proceedings of the Committee, and with such note or record of any evidence by the Committee as the Committee my deem fit, shall be laid on the Table of the House by the Chairman of the Select Committee, or by some other Member authorized by the Committee in that behalf. The Standing Order is silent as to how, or what other acts or conditions, the Chairman or Members shall do or fulfil in tabling the report, thus leaving it to what is reasonable 2628 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 9, 2008 within the meaning of Standing Order No.162(2). Hon. Members, the tradition of laying of Committee reports in this House has been that the Speaker and the Clerk are notified of the intended tabling of the report, and are provided with sufficient copies to facilitate the tabling. A notice of intention to lay a report is prepared and submitted to the Speaker for his attention and approval. Thereafter, the report is laid in the House when the Order for laying Papers is called, pursuant to Standing Order No.31. Copies of the report are then availed to hon. Members and the public. The practice in other jurisdictions does further inform this procedure. According to the rules of procedure of the Lokh Sabha of India, no part of evidence, oral or written report or proceedings of a Committee which has not been laid on the Table of the House shall be open to inspection by anyone, except under the authority of the Speaker, and further that evidence given before a Committee shall not be published by any Member of the Committee, or by any other person until it has been laid on the Table. The said rules further provide that the Speaker may, upon request being made to him, and when the House is not in session, order the printing, publication or circulation of a report of a Committee, notwithstanding that the same has not been presented to the House. In that case, the report shall be presented to the House during its next session at the first convenient opportunity. In the Australian House of Representatives, reports of standing and select committees and papers are presented at any time when other business is not before the House in such order as may be determined by the selection committee of that country. That is done each sitting Monday immediately after the prayers, when the order for presentation and statement on report has been called. According to Erskine May, in the book: Parliamentary Practice, 23rd Edition, on presentation of a committee report to the British House of Commons; when a Committee has agreed on it, the Chairman or some other Member is directed to make the report to the House, upon which the report is laid on the Table and ordered to be printed. Delivery of papers commanded by Her Majesty or where under an Act of Parliament, a statutory instrument is required to be laid before the House, the delivery of a copy of such paper or instrument to the votes and proceedings office during the sitting of Parliament is deemed to be for all purposes, the laying of them before the House. Keeping with the matter in hand, I have been briefed on what transpired on the material day, and the following facts have come to the fore:- (i) That the Committee concluded the writing of the Report on Thursday, 7th August, 2008, and the same was signed a few minutes before the Afternoon Sitting of the House on that day; (ii) That the Chairman attempted to lay the Report on the Table soon after the House assembled; (iii) That some copies of the Report were available for tabling and that one copy had been placed in the Speaker's folder for his attention; (iv) That no prior notice of intention to lay the Report on the Table of the House had been made to the Speaker, as has been the practice of our Parliament, save for the copy of the Report that was placed in the Speaker's folder as aforesaid, without his attention being drawn thereto. From the foregoing, the following deductions can be made:- (a) That the Standing Orders or any previous rulings do not require production of any fixed number of copies of a Report or a Paper for circulation before the tabling thereof. Indeed, this is the position in other parliamentary jurisdictions, as I have alluded to herein by way of persuasive authority; (b) That the practice of the House and the provisions of Standing Order No.161 prohibit premature disclosure or publication of evidence and documents presented to a Committee before October 9, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2629 the Report is laid on the Table of the House. It follows, therefore, that no evidence, document, nor copy of a report can be published or otherwise disclosed to any person other than a Member of the House until the Report of that Committee shall have been presented to the House, and that a Report of a Committee cannot, therefore, be available for circulation before it is tabled in the House; and (c) It is the responsibility of a Member desiring to lay a Report or a Paper on the Table of the House to satisfy himself or herself that due process has been followed in laying such a Report or document. I, therefore, wish to clarify and give directions that, henceforth, the following procedures will obtain in the tabling of Papers, Parliamentary Reports or documents:- (i) Any Paper, document, statutory instrument or a Parliamentary Committee Report which require to be laid, must be in a complete form, correct and authenticated. (ii) That a Member, a Chair of a Committee or Minister who desires to table any document or a Report, must file a notice with the Office of the Clerk, at least, two hours before the commencement of the sitting, indicating such intention for onward transmission to the Speaker; and (iii) Once the Speaker has perused the document or report and approved it for tabling, the concerned Member should ensure that, at least, 20 copies are availed to the House during the tabling - and not before the tabling - and sufficient number of copies furnished for circulation to all Members immediately after the tabling. Hon. Members, it behooves any Member who wants to table a Paper or a Report to ensure that the procedure, as stipulated above, is followed to the letter. All the necessary steps must be adhered to and within the required time-frame. The Chair will always facilitate the business of the House objectively, and without fear and bias. The Chair and Members play a complementary role in transacting the business of the House. Presentation of Papers and Reports should be made with full compliance within the set conditionalities as herein incorporated. It is the responsibility of the Chair to ensure that all documents and/or reports, once properly laid, are made available to Members of Parliament and to the larger public. In view of the communication that I have made, and having clearly and elaborately laid out the procedure to be followed in tabling Papers, Reports and any other document, I now call upon hon. Okemo or any hon. Member as may have been nominated by the Committee to proceed to lay the Report of the Committee in a completed form, on the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel at the earliest convenience of the Committee. I thank you."
}