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{
    "id": 426536,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/426536/?format=api",
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    "content": "relative successes of Ministries and their departments? Who will study policy objectives of Ministries and report on their effectiveness? These are very distinct and unfettered mandates given to Departmental Committees, but which have remained largely unattended to. This is where innovativeness comes in. In their book titled: “How Parliament Works, 6th Edition”, Robert Rodgers and Rodney Walters state: “Whatever a committee does, its effectiveness depends, above all, on its members.” Citing a Report of the Liaison Committee of the House of Commons the authors noted the following: “No pain, no gain. There is no easy route to success in committee work. A determined and hard working committee in which members are prepared to devote substantial effort and put the interest of the citizen and the taxpayer first can be extraordinarily effective.” I have no doubt that there are committees which by the end of the term of this Eleventh Parliament will be rated by yourselves as having been extraordinarily effective. Hon. Members, the last question raised the interpretation of Standing Order No.206(8) in comparison with Standing Order No.216(5)(a) and Standing Order No.216(5)(c). There appears to be no question as to which committee should oversee which particular Ministry. The plain reading of Standing Order No.206 and Standing Order No.216 indicates as follows: It will be out of order for the PIC to examine policy matters such as those of mandate, management, administration, or estimates of a Ministry, or its department, or a State corporation. It will also be out of order for the PIC to examine matters that are not of business or a commercial function of a State corporation such as the processes of appointing board members, hiring of chief executives, the execution of regulatory functions of State corporations or the implementation of objectives of State corporations. These are matters falling within the mandate of the Departmental Committees as they engage in matters of Ministries and departments under which the respective State corporations fall. It will be out of order for a Departmental Committee to attempt to inquire into matters of business or a commercial function of a State corporation except the policies that inform such business or commercial undertakings (I put emphasis on the word “policies”). Such matters include investments made by State corporations, the management of investments made by the national Government in a State corporation and related matters. The Oxford Business Dictionary defines a business function of an enterprise to include the functions of sale, procurement or purchase of goods and services, trading in services, commodities, shares or futures, the granting or undertaking of loans, commercial liabilities, debts or commercial agreements. It, therefore, follows that the substantial function of oversight of these items of public investments, whether they are being managed in accordance to serve financial or business principles and prudent commercial practices as made by the national Government in any corporation is an exclusive function of the PIC. Hon. Members, as you may be aware, the Speaker has no jurisdiction over matters active before committees unless in exceptional circumstances where those matters are brought to the attention of the Speaker. In this regard, the Member for Rarieda, in canvassing his views, correctly observed that the subjects under the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Information, to which he is a member, 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."
}