Parliament Committees caught sleeping on duty
Parliamentary Portfolio Committees have been accused of sleeping on duty after failing to demand monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports from ministries and government departments as part of oversight.
Government departments and ministries are required by law to submit their monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports to Parliament.
However, the majority if not all have not been adhering to the requirement and parliament committees have not been demanding them as well.
The committees were exposed by Norton legislator Temba Mliswa who raised the issue.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Mliswa said it was time for committees to wake up from their sleep.
‘’On a point of order! I want to concur with Honourable Ziyambi Ziyambi that the Portfolio Committees are supposed to get
monthly, quarterly, yearly reports from the ministries to see if the money is coming through.
‘’The minister is correct, the Portfolio Committees are not working in your Parliament, they are sleeping on duty; that then supervises whether the money is coming or not and then they can call the Minister to come through.
‘’The Public Financial Management Act is not being adhered to; monthly, quarterly and yearly reports should be coming in so that you have a case to say the money is not coming through,’’ he said.
According to Honourable Mliswa, the committees are not working and need to be whipped.
‘’Portfolio Committees are not working, you have to whip the Portfolio Chairpersons. They are sleeping on duty and the Public Accounts Committee in Nyanga also came up with that recommendation.
‘’They must wake up and the government Chief Whip must remove certain Members. Do not put them as friends, you need competent people. They are failures and they are making us look stupid, reshuffle them,’’ he said.
Commenting on the issue, Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda concurred with Mliswa.
‘’What the Honourable Leader of Government Business has stated buttressed by what Honourable Mliswa has clarified, the onus is on us to demand the monthly, quarterly and yearly reports. ‘’In the process, you should discover the anomalies,’’ he said–
Parliament Committees caught sleeping on duty
