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"speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
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"content": "Hon. Speaker, thank you for giving me a chance to also make a contribution on the matter. It is important to underline that Committees derive their mandates from Article 124(1) of the Constitution and it is very express that each House of Parliament may establish Committees and shall make Standing Orders for the orderly conduct of its proceedings including the proceedings of its Committees. Our own Standing Order No.218 is very clear that a Committee should be limited to its mandate. It says: “(1) Except as expressly provided for in these Standing Orders, no matter shall be referred to a select committee except on a Motion approved after notice given. (2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Speaker may, in exceptional circumstances, on a request by a Member, refer a matter to a Committee.” Standing Order No.206 talks about the Public Investments Committee, and my Chairman has alluded to it. It is very clear. It gets its mandate from Standing Order No. 260(1). If you look at the first mandate of the Committee, it is to examine reports and accounts of public investments. That is important because, almost on a weekly basis, the Leader of Majority Party lays reports of public investment in this House. In fact, one would expect that based on the activities coming from Leader of Majority Party, this should actually be a lot of workload for the Committee. You look at Standing Order No.216, which our Chairman has alluded to, it gives the mandate of the Departmental Committees. Standing Order No.216(1) gives the functions of Departmental Committees. The mandate is very clear. It is:- “(a) investigate, inquire into and report on all matters relating to the mandate, management, activities, administration, operations and estimates of the assigned Ministries and departments; (b) study the programme and policy objectives of Ministries and departments and the effectiveness of the implementation; (c) study and review all legislation referred to it; (d) study, assess and analyze the relative success of the Ministries and departments as measured by the results obtained as compared with their stated objectives; (e) investigate and inquire into all matters relating to the assigned Ministries and departments as they may deem necessary, and as may be referred to them by the House; (f) to vet and report on all appointments where the Constitution or any law requires the National Assembly to approve, except those under Standing Order No.204 ( Committee on Appointments ); and, (g) make reports and recommendations to the House as often as possible, including recommendation of proposed legislation.” I am in the Committee on Energy, Communication and Information. The subjects that it covers include fossil fuels exploration, development, production, maintenance and regulation of energy, communication, information, broadcasting and Information Communications Technology (ICT) development and management. I do not want to belabor the point but I think unless we can clearly limit and observe--- Of course there is the letter of the law and spirit of the Standing Order. It is incumbent upon us to work within the letter and spirit of the Standing Orders. Unless we have clear demarcations, my fear is that we are about to witness what, for lack of better physiology, I would call oversight banditry. It looks like we are headed in a situation where some Committees will be equal but others will be more equal than others. We are 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."
}