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{
    "id": 439274,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439274/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 93,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Members, having established the practice on how incidences of unauthorized disclosure are treated in comparative jurisdictions, I now wish to respond to the issues raised by the Leader of Majority Party. Firstly, I have established that the Report in question was adopted by the Committee and signed by the Chairperson on 3rd April, 2014. Pursuant to Standing Order No.199(6), the Report should have been tabled within 14 days’ period, which should have ended on 18th April, 2014. However, as you are aware, the House went on recess on 3rd April, 2014 and reconvened on 22nd April, 2014. On the question of whether the Report tabled is the same Report on whose contents and findings the two dailies carried, a perusal of the Report reveals that the articles published in the newspapers are an almost accurate and extensive lifting from the Report of the Committee as later tabled in the House. One of the dailies even had the temerity to state that it had in its custody a copy of the Report. The House may wish to note that when the matter was raised by the Leader of Majority Party, the Chairperson of the PAC categorically stated that the Committee was not part of the leakage. He continued to state and I quote: “I want to assure the House that the Committee has exercised due diligence. We have been careful not to release even a scrap of paper relating to this matter while we were discussing it. This Committee will definitely get to the root source of this leakage, rumour mongering or speculation on this Report. I assure this House on the integrity and the sanctity of the Report that we have just tabled”. Members, there is no doubt that the Report was leaked before it was tabled in the House. Since it is not possible at this stage for me to determine who may have released the contents of the Report to the media, I wish to send a strong reminder to all Committees that it is in the interest of this House that the evidence received by a Committee, its proceedings, a draft Committee report, should never be disclosed by any person before the Committee has reported to the House. This rule applies to all persons who have access to Committees’ information including Committee Members and their staff. It also applies to any witness who gives evidence to a Committee, any person who provides a written submission to a Committee and any person to whom Committee information has been improperly disclosed. This many include another Member, staff of a Member, a public officer or a staff of a media house. Members, I would also like to warn all recipients of unauthorized disclosures and they should know that they have an obligation to immediately inform the Clerk of the National Assembly or the Committee Secretariat when they receive such information and the circumstances of such receipts. Good manners, as civility, obligates a recipient of such unauthorized information to surrender the information to the Committee secretariat as soon as possible and not disclose the information to any other person, or record or copy it in any other way. Everyone should know that any contravention of the rule against unauthorized disclosure may constitute contempt of Parliament for which this House will not hesitate to take necessary punitive action to mitigate against such breaches. Obviously, the act of leaking the report lowers public confidence in the Committee, the Committee system and brings to disrepute the dignity of Parliament generally. On the second question of who leaked the Report, I leave the Members of the PAC to be pricked by their conscience even as they carry out investigations as promised by the Chairperson. Regarding the subtitle of the Report, it has also come to my attention 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."
}