CONSTITUTIONAL & PARLIAMENTARY

INFORMATION

—
60th year, No. 200
Geneva, October 4-6, 2010

CONTENTS

Managing parliamentary spending in times of economic

restraint : challenges and solutions — General debate
moderated by Dr Ulrich SCHÖLER, Deputy Secretary
General of the Bundestag (Germany)......................................... 3

The Cambodian Senate: from a self-evaluation exercise towards

a new development plan — Sarith OUM, Secretary
General of the Senate (Cambodia)............................................ 10

Parliamentary autonomy in Montenegro — Damir

DAVIDOVIC, Secretary General of the Parliament
(Montenegro)............................................................................. 17

The challenges parliamentary committees face in exercising

oversight functions on Executive — Austin ZVOMA, Clerk
of Parliament (Zimbabwe)........................................................ 24

Transparency and exemplarity as criteria guiding parliamentary

activity — Manuel ALBA NAVARRO, Secretary General
of the Congress of Deputies (Spain).......................................... 34

Introducing information technology in the Chamber — V.K.

AGNIHOTRI, Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha
(India)......................................................................................... 40
2 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Current issues in supporting the activities of the Council of the

Federation - Vladimir SVINAREV, Secretary General of
the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly
(Russian Federation)................................................................. 46

Support and training for new Members of Parliament —

General debate moderated by Mrs Doris Katai Katebe
MWINGA, Clerk of the National Assembly (Zambia)............. 49

Turkic Speaking Countries and parliamentary diplomacy —

Ramil HASANOV, Secretary General of the Parliament
Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA)................ 62

Cut Motions - Motions to reduce the amount of money

demanded by a Government in a Budget — S BAL
SHEKAR, Additional Secretary of the Lok Sabha (India)............
65

Independent budget processes of Parliament for improved

accountability and scrutiny of parliamentary budget –
Zingile DINGANI, Secretary of Parliament (South Africa)..........
71

The realization of ‘a model parliament communicating with its

citizens’ - KWON Oh Eul, Secretary General of the
National Assembly (Republic of Korea).................................... 81
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 3

MANAGING PARLIAMENTARY SPENDING IN

TIMES OF ECONOMIC RESTRAINT :
CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

General debate moderated by Dr Ulrich SCHÖLER

Deputy Secretary General of the Bundestag (Germany)

We are starting our October session this year with a general debate on “Managing
parliamentary spending in times of economic restraint: challenges and solutions”. This
is a particularly topical issue at present as almost every country’s budget deficit and
debt stock have increased significantly, and in some cases dramatically, over the past
two years as a result of the global economic and financial crisis. Although the global
economic slump seems to have bottomed out, there is still major uncertainty about the
sustainability and permanence of the economic recovery.
In Germany, too, the economic and financial crisis has profoundly affected the state
of public finances. In 2009, we experienced the worst recession since the Federal
Republic came into existence, and two supplementary budgets were required to
cushion the impacts of the crisis and finance the mitigation measures adopted in this
context. In 2010, falling tax revenues and rising expenditure have resulted in new
borrowing on an unprecedented scale. The draft budget for 2011 is intended to reduce
this new borrowing to a sustainable level without impeding growth. New debt rules
incorporated into Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law, come into effect from 2011
and will oblige the Federal Government and the budget legislator to cut the structural
deficit. Net borrowing, for example, must be progressively reduced by around 10
billion euros annually to 2016.
This consolidation policy course is a requirement of the draft budget presented by
the Federal Finance Minister. Among other things, it means that every area of
expenditure must make a contribution to compliance with the new debt rules. When
drawing up the budget estimates for 2011 and in the mid-term financial plan to 2014,
4 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

all assets are to be reviewed and every item of income and expenditure to be examined
critically on a differentiated basis. Parliament, too, must comply with these financial
and budget policy constraints when preparing its own budget.
In Germany, Parliament has budget sovereignty. However, the constitutional organs
do not act in isolation; rather, given the complementary nature of their functions, they
must consult and cooperate with each other if they are to perform their functions
properly. Experience has shown that when preparing the budget, political priorities
invariably have a bearing on consolidation efforts. It is not simply a matter of making
proportional cuts. In the 2011 budget, for example, the Federal Government plans to
increase the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, whereas
cutbacks will be required in other policy areas.
If Parliament expects the general public to make sacrifices as part of the efforts to
overcome the economic and financial crisis, it cannot ignore the need for financial
restraint when it comes to establishing its own budget, which accounts for a 0.2 per
cent share of the total federal budget. If Parliament wishes to set an example, it must
critically examine the Bundestag’s budget as well – but without adversely affecting its
functionality. The capacities of the German Bundestag, as a constitutional body, to
function effectively must be dictated not by the financial situation but by its obligations
to fulfil its mandate and functions. Funding for official visits for Members, for example,
is one of the areas which help to safeguard this functionality. Despite frequent public
criticism of Members’ “travel activities” and the implication that they go abroad far too
often, such criticism is wide of the mark. In fact, this item of expenditure has increased
over the last ten years, but the rise is primarily due to more intensive contacts between
the German Bundestag and European Union institutions as part of the Lisbon process
and to the Bundestag’s international activities and commitments.
The Members of the German Bundestag therefore have the difficult task of
influencing the preparation of Germany’s federal budget while also critically reviewing
Parliament’s own budget spending. They must ask themselves whether and how
Parliament can make a contribution to consolidating the federal budget and
overcoming the economic and financial crisis in the light of parliamentary spending as
a proportion of the overall budget, without restricting Parliament’s ability to perform
its constitutional tasks.
I am sure that many other national parliaments are facing similar situations and I
look forward to hearing about the differences and other solutions being adopted.



Mr Vladimir SVINAREV (Russian Federation) presented the following contribution :

Considering the important missions that we have to accomplish, an efficient funding,

maintenance and support of the parliamentary process is the topical issue dominating
the agenda of all the law-makers at all legislative levels.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 5

An examination of the available information on the structure, functions and

performance of central and regional legislative bodies and a review of the world
experience to date have served the basis for the economic model designed to maintain
and support the Council of Federation law-making process. The model builds on the
fundamental federal law “On the Status of Member of the Council of Federation and
Deputy of the State Duma in the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation”, the
Fiscal Code of the Russian Federation and the federal laws on the three-year state
budget and the current fiscal year budget.

The normative approach forms the underlying principle of the CoF funding
arrangement. This principle means a regulation (standardization) of the financial
resources channelled to fund the functions executed by the CoF members, committees
and commissions. In 2010 alone, over 60 regulatory acts and legal instruments
governing allocation of financial resources to fund the CoF need to have been
developed and approved by the CoF Funding, Maintenance and Support Assurance
Commission. This commission is responsible for a practical application of the
experience gained to date, implementation of recommendations received from the RF
constituent entities and results gained through interaction with the parliaments in
Canada, Sweden, UK, Brazil and in other nations. These regulations and legal
instruments ensure a transparent and judicious application of public moneys and
include among others the CoF budget development, approval and execution policy; the
CoF scientific research management and financing policy; the CoF events management
policy; the CoF members funding standards etc.

Last spring, the President of the Russian Federation addressing a meeting attended by
the CoF members urged the Upper House jointly with the regional legislative
assemblies to take swift measures in order to cure effects of the financial crunch as
soon as possible. The President described optimisation of all the public accounts
including the parliamentary funding arrangements as an effective crisis management
instrument. The Council of Federation wasted no time and reciprocated by first
thoroughly examining our cost structure and then revising the Upper House funding
plan.

The schedule of positions and salaries has been optimised and the CoF Staff
structure has been streamlined. The functions of the Staff divisions have been re-
examined to exclude overlapping activities. Personal professional development and
performance improvement are the tasks that the Staff members have to address now.

Some of the CoF expenditures are channelled to support the functions performed by
the CoF members. Efforts have been taken to effectively reduce those expenditures
without prejudice to the quality of services rendered to the CoF members.

A revision of allocations channelled to cover travelling costs incurred by the CoF Staff
employees has become a major saver of the parliamentary funds. This is a sensitive
cost item for us considering the vast territory of our country and the nature of our core
function to maintain and support the law-making process in the RF constituencies
whose number totals 83.
6 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

The Council of Federation holds numerous large-scale nation-wide and international

events including The Baikal Economic Forum, The Neva Environment Congress, The
International Road Safety Forum etc. These events are attended by thousands of
people. Notwithstanding the funding restraints, both the national and international
attendance has not decreased.

Reduction of natural resources consumption is a topical issue both for our Parliament
and the Parliaments in many other countries. President Dmitry Medvedev proclaimed
energy saving a government policy designed to promote energy-saving technologies
and equipment in the first place thus reducing the costs and environmental impact.

The restrictions introduced on the circulation of documents’ hard copies have

proved to be an effective money saver as well. Along with the other RF state bodies, we
are actively assisting in the efforts to establish a single unified electronic portal
granting access to government and municipal services and providing a swift response
to public enquiries thus reducing consumption of paper.

The described lines of activities are reviewed on an annual basis. As demonstrated by

the practical experience, we are making very good progress. All our efforts to optimise
the costs structure ensure compliance with the established standards which fully fits in
the effect-oriented budgeting model currently applied by the Russian Federation
Government.

Proper management of the administrative and financial activities of the Parliament is

indispensible for an optimised application of funds made available to the MPs and
legislative bodies’ steering organs.

International experience gained by our colleagues in other countries is being

extensively applied in the Council of Federation. Today, the MPs enjoy larger
discretion over their individual budgets (current expenses, remuneration payable to
assistants, travelling costs etc.). They are free to introduce new technologies
simplifying document control and information support, optimize daily routine to make
an efficient use of the services provided by the CoF Staff.

The described methods offer an opportunity to optimise application of funds allocated

to support the CoF functions.



Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked what the role of the Speaker was in drawing
up the parliamentary budget in Germany, before inviting members to participate in the
debate.

Mr Zingile DINGANI (South Africa) asked what Dr Schöler meant by the Bundestag
having sovereignty over its budget. Was there no interference from the Federal
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 7

Treasury? He also asked what authority the Bundestag had to amend the budget of the
Federal Government.

Dr V.K. AGNIHOTRI (India) said that in the Indian Parliament, each House had total
autonomy in drawing up its own budget. There was no need for discussion or meeting
with the Ministry of Finance in drawing up these budgets. Parliament had the
opportunity to approve parliamentary staff salaries, but conventionally, did not reduce
these amounts or even debate them. On the other side of the coin, secretaries general
normally adopted the same staffing provisions as the main civil service, including
economic restraints. The Minister of Finance had also in 2009-10 asked the Presiding
Officers of both Houses if committees of both Houses could avoid meeting outside the
precincts of Parliament, and they had obliged.

Mr Ghulam Hassan GRAN (Afghanistan) asked about the prospects for economic
recovery in Germany.

Mr Manuel Alba NAVARRO (Spain) said that the total annual costs of the Chamber
of Deputies were put into perspective by the fact that they approximated to the transfer
fee paid by Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo. This fact had started a debate in Spain
about whether Parliament represented value for money. When the financial crisis
broke, the Government had proposed salary cuts and freezes for parliamentarians and
public servants. As Parliament was autonomous of Government, it had had to
implement cuts to its own budgets of around 5%. It was possible to achieve this once
without great damage, but it would be a hard process to repeat. The process had led to
internal quarrels about which areas of expenditure to cut hardest. It was often hard to
take an overview of expenditure, and easier to pick off specific areas of expenditure.
The parliamentary budget was also extremely small in terms of the state budget, 0.1%.
There had been no redundancies in the parliamentary service.

Mr Alain DELCAMP (France) noted that the issue of budgetary autonomy had been
tackled in a recent ASGP questionnaire. In France, the budgets of both assemblies were
determined by committees comprising members of the relevant assembly and chaired
by a representative of the Court of Accounts. The assembly then drafted a provisional
budget, which it transmitted to the Government for insertion in the state budget.
Criticising the operations of Parliament was a national sport in France, and because of
the financial crisis this had taken on greater force in recent years. In the Senate,
measures had been taken to reduce expenditure. Salaries were the major item in the
budget – these had been effectively frozen by virtue of being linked to civil service
salaries. Far-reaching administrative reforms were under way, and one third of the
Administration’s departments and services had been abolished. Parliamentary travel
costs had been stabilised, but it was hard to reduce them. The Senate also had its own
pension scheme, in theory aligned with the state system, but in practice less costly to
the public purse. The main issue was about providing transparency to the public while
maintaining autonomy. Key to this was proper explanation.

Mr Ibrahim MOHAMED IBRAHIM (Sudan) explained that the situation in his

country was particularly critical given its post-conflict situation. Parliament, despite its
budgetary autonomy, needed to help reduce expenditure in this context, and had taken
8 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

measures to do so, including freezing MPs’ allowances and co-operation with regional
parliaments on sharing resources.

Mr Heiki SIBUL (Estonia) talked about the painful budget cuts that had been
experienced by his Parliament in recent years, with its costs decreased by as much as
30%. This included cuts in MPs’ expenditure, a freeze in MPs’ pay, a 9% reduction in
staff numbers and an 8% cut in staff pay. Investment in parliamentary buildings had
stopped. He hoped for a better financial future.

Mr Vladimir SVINAREV (Russian Federation) spoke of the efforts made in his

country to make for a more efficient use of parliamentary resources. He asked Dr
Schöler if energy-efficient technology use could bring about cost savings in the
parliamentary context.

Mrs Barbara GEORGOPOULOU (Greece) spoke of the efforts of the Hellenic

Parliament to contribute to reducing the national deficit. There had been a 2 million
euro reduction in expenditure, particularly in the areas of international relations and
public information. MPs and parliamentary employees had been subject to similar
measures: MPs had taken a 20% salary cut, while staff had had their pay reduced by
15%. Non-salary related expenses had also been cut by 20%.

Mr Félix OWANSANGO DEACKEN (Gabon) mentioned the ad hoc committee of

both Houses that considered the budget of his national Parliament together with the
Ministry of Finance. The Government used the limitations on its income as an
argument to limit parliamentary expenditure. But as parliamentarians had the last say,
they sometimes voted to take money from other departmental budgets to ensure that
they did not lose out. Staff and parliamentarians’ remuneration would never be cut,
whatever the financial situation.

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, invited Dr Schöler to conclude the debate.

Dr Ulrich SCHOLER (Germany) noted that he had proposed the idea of this general
debate, but thought that he was probably the wrong person to moderate it, given the
serious cuts that other Parliaments were experiencing, compared with the relatively
benign situation in Germany, where there had been very few cuts in parliamentary
spending. In Germany, the draft budget for the Parliament was discussed by
parliamentary officials with the Ministry of Finance before further discussion with the
Speaker and the Council of Elders. It was then formally presented to Parliament as part
of the state budget by the Ministry of Finance, but it was not debated, unlike budgets
demanded by the Executive. Parliament represented only 0.2% of the national budget,
so any cuts were symbolic in terms of dealing with the national deficit. Salaries were
contractual and could not be cut. He could not answer Mr Gran’s question, as he was
not an economic expert. He thought that the amount of money paid for a single
footballer provided an instructive context for parliamentary spending. The post-
conflict situation in a country like Sudan provided a sobering context for looking at
budget cuts in a wealthier country like Germany. Nonetheless, the level of cuts in
Estonia was very striking. The financial situation in Greece was well-known in Europe.
Energy efficiency had been a priority for the German Parliament for some time – the
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 9

new buildings in Berlin were energy-efficient. In Germany, the budgets for the two
Houses were decided on separately, unlike in Gabon. He thanked all those who had
participated in the debate.
10 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

THE CAMBODIAN SENATE : FROM A SELF-

EVALUATION EXERCISE TOWARDS A NEW
DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Sarith OUM
Secretary General of the Senate (Cambodia)

Today I have the honor and great pleasure to be here with you and to share
experiences we have received from implementing our new development plan after the
Cambodian Senate finished its self evaluation after 10 year performance which, as I
recall, started on 28 April 2009 and ended on 12 October 2009. The evaluation was done
using guidelines and toolkits as recommended by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
and comparing with the criteria of a democratic parliament. This evaluation process
was divided into four stages: the formation of Special Evaluation Committee, working
group division to answer the IPU’s questionnaires, workshop arrangement to collect
recommendations from Senators, development partners and the public and the last
stage was getting the approval from the Standing Committee.

This evaluation was intended to find out strengths and weaknesses of the
Cambodian Senate after its 10 year operation (1999-2009) in order to be able to set goal
for improving legal framework and procedures, techniques and other policies as to
strengthen the implementation of the three functions of the Senate such as Legislation,
Representation and Oversight and also for improving quality service of the Secretariat
General. After cautious studies and a number of reviews on recommendations
collected from the workshop, the working group prepared all the findings and
submitted them to the Standing Committee for approval. After giving approval, the
standing committee encouraged the committee to study various provisions and
policies in order to make effective reforms aiming to address all the negative points
that have been found as follows:
The Representativeness of the Senate
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 11

- Representativeness of women in the composition of the Senate

- Effectiveness of the Senate as a forum for debate on questions of public concern

The Senate oversight over the Executive

- Capacity of the Senate to influence and scrutinize the national budget through
all its stages
- Capacity of the Senate to hold no elected public bodies to account

Senate
- The capacity of the Senate to process and subject draft legislation to full and
open debate in the Senate
- Effectiveness of the commissions’ procedures for scrutinizing and amending
draft legislation

The transparency and accessibility of the Senate

- Opportunities for electors to express their views and concerns directly to their
representatives, regardless of party affiliation

The accountability of the Senate

- Effectiveness of the system in ensuring the observance of agreed codes of
conduct by members
- Systematic monitoring and reviewing of levels of public confidence in the
Senate

Senate’s involvement in international policy

- Effectiveness of the Senate to scrutinize and contribute to the Government’s
foreign policy
- Adequacy and accuracy of information available to the Senate about the
Government’s negotiating positions in regional and universal/global bodies

New Development Plans after Self Evaluation

After receiving recommendations from the Standing Committee, the Senate

established three Sub-Commissions to support the special evaluating committee in
reviewing, and proposing amendments to various existing provisions and establishing
additional provisions and procedures. The three Sub-Commissions are:

1-Sub-Commission for reviewing Laws on the Senate’s Election: the role of this Sub-
Commission is to basically study and review the contents of the Law on Senate’s
Election by focusing primarily on the composition of the Senate Members for the new
legislature and the increase of the number of women candidates in the election.

2-Sub-Commission for reviewing Internal Regulations of the Senate and Code of

Ethics: the role of this Sub-Commission is to study and propose amendment to Internal
Regulations of the Senate, improve procedures of the plenary sessions and to legalize
all informal procedures, especially the inclusion of oversight and informative roles of
the specialized commissions into the Internal Regulations which were not stipulated
earlier in order to promote and ensure the rights of Senators in debating and to
12 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

facilitate their role implementation. Additionally, this Sub-Commission is also

responsible for drafting Code of Ethics of the Senators as well. The draft Code of Ethics
has been made with the purpose to protect the rights, benefits and dignity of Senators
and also to promote the respect of Constitution, Laws and other Legal Instruments in
order to escalate public confidence and transparency.

3-Sub-Commission for studying the Constitution and Law on Congress of the

National Assembly and the Senate: the role of this Sub-Commission is to review and
propose amendment on various articles of the constitution relating to roles, duties and
obligation of the Senate aiming to balance the work between the Senate and the
National Assembly in implementing the three key roles: Representation, Legislation
and Oversight. The role of the Senate as representative of local administration will also
be proposed to be stipulated more clearly in the Constitution.

Amendment proposal on article 116 of the Constitution in 1999, which requires to

have Law on Congress of the National Assembly and the Senate to enable both Houses
to convene a Congress in order to resolve political deadlock, ensure national
reconciliation and stability during political crisis of the country, has already been
drafted and sent to the National Assembly for reviewing.

Besides studying and making amendments to the above provisions, the roles and
duties of the nine specialized commissions were also studied and reviewed in order to
ensure that the three functions of the specialized commissions: representation,
legislation and information are fully and effectively implemented. To strengthen the
representation and oversight roles, Senators have been organizing various regional
forums and public consultations in the eight regions, so that they could share and
exchange information, promote decentralization and de-concentration policies, follow
up the development process and law enforcement at the localities, disseminate laws
and assess the progress of activity toward achieving Cambodian Millennium
Development Goals.

Structural Reform of the Secretariat General

In order to ensure effectiveness and to improve quality service sustainably, the

Secretariat General decided to modify its organizational structure and to improve the
roles and duties of several departments. Among the newly established departments
particularly, Department of General Research and Department of Woman Affairs were
established according to the recommendations made after the self evaluation. These
two departments have the roles to analyze social and economic aspects of draft laws
and also to assist in making gender policy in order to provide basic information to
support Senators, particularly women Senators and promote women officials
participation in socio-economic and political sphere.

In addition to existing policies, the Secretariat General has successfully completed

the five year Human Resource Development Plan (2010-2014) which will serve as
vector to identifying strategic goals in building capacity and providing better and more
effective quality services to the institution. The Strategic Communication and Public
Relations Plan has also been completed that will guide us on how to strengthen
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 13

relations between the Senate and Commune/Sangkat Council, national institutions,

civil societies, national and international organizations and the public, and to increase
cooperation with other parliaments in the world. We also have jointly made the ICT
development plan in the Senate according to the IPU standard.

Conclusion

The decision to establish Sub-Commissions for studying provisions and various

policies reflects the strong political will of the Senate’s Leaders in making in-depth
reform aiming at promoting democracy through parliament.

In the first legislature, Senators were appointed but in the second legislature
Senators were elected through non universal election which clearly shows that the
Senate is reforming itself for the people and is stepping toward a parliament with
accountability, transparency and openness so as to protect the rights and national
interest. The election for the Senate’s third legislature will be held on 29 January 2012
and we expect to have stronger legal base, provisions and policies as a mechanism to
enable us to draft and adopt more laws so as to cope with social development,
especially to perform the oversight role more effectively.

However, despite having efficient legal ground, the capacity of Senators is still
limited which requires us to continue to build up their capacity to respond to new
working approaches.

Lastly, I would like to thank Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen for your kind
attention and I would also like to call for your further support in our reform process so
as to enable us to successfully attain our goals.

Annex
RECOMMENDATIONS

The Senate

1-Continue to strengthen its representative role more effectively by visiting the local
commune/sangkat and organizing public consultations in the localities in order to
collect opinion and data from the local communes regarding new law requirements,
and the impact of the implementation of the existing laws in a timely manner so as to
increase the confidence of the voters.

2-Continue consultations with the league of commune/sangkat councils, association

of commune/sangkat councils and councils of the capital city, other cities, provinces
and districts on decentralization and de-concentration and other issues involving
administration at the national level through the implementation of four mechanisms as
follows:
A-Organizing forums in 8 regions
B-Organizing forums between women Senators and women members of
commune/sangkat council in the regions
14 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

C-Organizing forums for the league of commune/sangkat councils and the

association of commune/sangkat councils in the capital and provinces and report to
the Standing Committee of the Senate
D-Organizing annual national forums between the Senate and the league of
commune/sangkat councils, association of commune/sangkat councils in the
capital and provinces and other institutions involved with the policy of
decentralization and de-concentration.

3-Continue to strengthen the Senate’s legislative and oversight role through capacity
and skill development programs delivered to the Senators and supporting staff,
especially the capacity to collect and analyze and give recommendations draft
legislation.

4-Continue to focus on problems of the voters in the regions and people all over the
country in order to find solutions for them by referring to the three key roles of the
Senate.

5-Every specialized commission of the Senate shall have to strengthen and broaden
relations with national institutions, civil society organizations and other international
organizations so as to exchange information from each other more effectively.

6-Conduct public surveys to find out the major needs of the voters and to increase
confidence of the people all over the country.

7-Review and study unofficial procedures previously used by the Senate and add
them into internal regulations to make a more systematic structure.

8-Specialized commissions shall have to keep reports of their own field so as to be

able to report to the Standing Committee of the Senate and the Senate’s sessions.

9-Specialized commissions shall have to make their own program and working
plans more clearly and accurately.

10-Learn to express opinions and give recommendations on various legal texts in

either reports or meeting sessions of the Senate.

11-While in Senate’s sessions or giving recommendation on legal texts, there should

be at least one representative from each political party that has seats in the Senate to
stand up and express their opinions or make other suggestions reflecting their
respective political stances.

12-Consider establishing a political group.

The Secretariat General

1-Continue to provide better quality and effective services to the institutions.

 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 15

2-Continue to seek assistance support from development partners and other

friendly parliaments for institutional development.

3-Make structural reforms relating to its own administration, roles, duties and
responsibilities in order to give better services to the Senate, in accordance with the
international standard of democratic parliaments.

4-Update the strategic framework and plan of action in order to promote the
capacity of the Cambodian Senate.

The above recommendations are just initial steps. As regards the medium and long-
term strategies, the ad-hoc commission realized that it would have to further continue
its research on legal provision and procedures as stated in the constitution, internal
regulations, Senate election law, statute of Senators, and roles, duties and competencies
of the specialized commissions and the Secretariat General. It would also have to study
standards and parliamentary procedures in a regional and global framework in order
to come up with effective measures and changes for better institutional development.”



Mr André GAGNON (Canada) thanked Mr OUM for an interesting

communication. In the Canadian Parliament, self-evaluation and internal audit
exercises took place regularly, with the aim of discovering how effective the Parliament
and its administration were. This was not always an easy task: quantity of output was
not necessarily a measure of effectiveness. He asked how questions such as this had
been approached in the Cambodian evaluation.

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked if the IPU’s self-assessment questionnaire

or a similar document had been used in Cambodia, and whether this questionnaire had
been completed by parliamentary staff as well as senators. He also asked for more
information about the Code of Ethics, and how parliamentarians had reacted to the
requirements of this code. He asked furthermore if ICT support was provided with
assistance from the IPU and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliaments. Finally, he asked
if Senators in Cambodia were all elected, or if some were also appointed.

Mr Said MOKADEM (Maghreb Consultative Council) asked for more information

about the development of the Human Resource Development Plan.

Mr Zingile DINGANI (South Africa) asked if the self-evaluation conducted by the

Cambodian Parliament was only inward-looking, or also considered the impact of the
Parliament’s work on the lives of the people of the country.

Mr Sarith OUM (Cambodia) replied to Mr Gagnon by saying that the exercise had
studied the entire body of work carried out by the Senate during the decade from its
foundation in 1999 to 2009. The IPU criteria had been used, and both Senators and
administrative staff had responded to 80 questions about the performance of the
16 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Senate. A special committee made up of the nine committee chairs led the process, with
the involvement in addition of every head of department. The need for a Code of
Ethics had arisen during the process of self-evaluation, as a way of helping Senators to
manage potential conflicts of interest. Mr OUM thanked Mr Casini from the Global
Centre for sending three groups of experts to Cambodia to help with the development
of parliamentary ICT. The Human Resource Development Plan was prepared by the
special committee mentioned above, with final decisions taken by the Standing
Committee of the Senate, the governing body. Another deficiency identified by the
process of self-evaluation was that, while the Cambodian constitution provided for a
joint meeting of both Houses where required, the rules for such a meeting were not
specified. This was now being rectified. Attempts were being made to increase the
representation of women in the Cambodian Parliament to 30%. Senators were by and
large indirectly elected – two, however, of the total of 61, were appointed by the King.

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, congratulated Mr OUM for the efforts he was

making to develop the Cambodian Senate for the better.

Mr Sarith OUM thanked the French, Canadian and Australian senates for their
support over the years.

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, thanked Mr Sarith OUM for his communication

as well as all those members who had put questions to him.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 17

PARLIAMENTARY AUTONOMY IN MONTENEGRO

Damir DAVIDOVIC
Secretary General of the Parliament (Montenegro)

It is my pleasure to address the ASGP on behalf of the Parliament of Montenegro.

Also, I have to apologize in advance for a bit longer presentation, but, since this is the
first time that a Secretary General of the Montenegrin Parliament has the honor to
address you, I believe that this is a proper opportunity to give you more details about
the parliament and parliamentary life of the youngest UN member state.

Countries develop parliament and parliamentary practices in different ways.

Various cultural ambient, political environments, traditions, etc. make the search for a
single formula very difficult or virtually impossible, but at the end each parliament is
assessed through how well it represents the citizen, makes laws and performs
oversight over the executive. In order to provide for this principle to be functional in
practice Parliament must achieve a considerable level of autonomy over its internal
operations. My presentation today reflects some of my experience gained in efforts to
improve autonomy of the Parliament of Montenegro, as well as achieved results and
challenges to come. I will also share with you some thoughts about the concept of
parliamentary autonomy itself and its application in the Montenegrin context.

Historically, the roots of parliamentarism in Montenegro go back to the 17th century

when general gatherings of Montenegrin people as first bodies of a representative
nature were established. Throughout the 17th and 18th century, Montenegro advanced
as the state with first state bodies being formed, representing important pillars in
strengthening the entire state system. With the beginning of the 20th century,
Montenegrin parliamentary life has entered into modern stage. Namely, in 1905, the
first elections in Montenegro were held for the Montenegrin People’s Assembly whose
task came down to passing the first Constitution. The first elections for a legislative
18 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

assembly were held the following year. There were 76 MPs in the first convocation of
Parliament in 1906. The President, Vice-Presidents and two Secretaries of Parliament
were elected by secret vote while MPs enjoyed certain immunities.

After World War I, though Montenegro was on the allies’ side and while within the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Montenegro lost its state. In the later Yugoslav
Parliament, which had over 300 MPs, eight to ten MPs from different parties were
delegated from Montenegro. After the Second World War, the Montenegrin Parliament
was a single-party parliament until 1990, when the first multi-party elections for the
Parliament of Montenegro were held. It was a Republic parliament as Montenegro at
the time was a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and later the State Union of
Serbia and Montenegro.

In May 2006, Montenegrin people decided to renew independent state at a

democratic referendum. The Parliament of Montenegro has adopted a Resolution on
independence, by which Montenegro has regained its independent state status after 88
years. Soon after, parliamentary elections were held and 23 Convocation of the
Constitutional Parliament was elected whose task was to adopt the county’s highest
legal act - the Constitution. They managed to do so in October 2007 and, with it, the
ground was set for Montenegro’s further development as a modern and democratic
country. Position, role, election, mandate, leadership, etc. as well as the number of MPs
of the Parliament are defined with articles 82 to 94 of the Constitution.

The Parliament of Montenegro as the unicameral legislature consists of 81 members,

each elected for a four-year term. MPs are elected directly by citizens, based on general
and equal suffrage and by secret ballot. The election system entails proportional
representation (PR) based on a single national list. This system, some claim, weakens
the direct connection between MPs and voters, strengthening the connection between
MPs and party leaders, even though, the character of Montenegrin society is such that
MPs are associated with a municipality or region – even if not directly elected from
there. Currently, MPs from 11 political parties are organized in six party clubs plus
four representatives of four Albanian parties.

This introductory information was necessary to understand the context in which the
Montenegrin Parliament exists and functions and now I will address in more detail the
issue of the autonomy. As you can see the recent history of the country itself was rather
eventful, which of course, has influenced significantly the status, role and position of
Parliament in political, economic and societal spheres of the country’s being.

In transition to a multi-party democracy, the Montenegrin parliament has

undergone some significant changes. With Montenegro becoming an independent state
and with almost unanimous public and political support for European integration the
Parliament has entered a new phase of reform enabling it to meet the challenges of
joining the EU. Procedures have been changed with new Rules of procedure in 2006 in
order to provide for more constructive parliamentary debates and more efficiency in
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 19

the oversight work. Focus of parliamentary work has shifted from plenary to
committee sessions, which provides for more focused and articulate debates.

New instruments such as parliamentary hearings and inquires have been

introduced and the old ones such as question time, interpellation, etc., have been
strengthened to provide for a higher level of oversight over the executive. A lot has
been done in terms of increasing the transparency and openness of parliamentary
operations including development of capacity for direct broadcasting of plenary
sessions, creation of a modern web portal and live streaming of parliamentary sessions.
Our intention is to use ITC technologies further to facilitate the legislative process as
much as possible.

Parliamentary autonomy is a complex concept and not easy to introduce and adhere
to especially in countries with relatively short tradition of multiparty systems and
relatively long periods of government predominance over the parliament and its
function. In Montenegro, the power is regulated following the principle of the division
of powers into the legislative, executive and judicial, as well as on check and balance
principle as set by the new Constitution.

It took some time to learn more and accept more, first within the institution itself
and then outside. And while a concept may appear so logical, rational and rather
widely accepted and therefore easy to implement, it is not always the case. It requires
structural changes of not only the system, but of the people’s mind set, as well, where
the latter is the precondition for the former. Nevertheless, we have managed to make
significant improvements in this respect and I will present some of them later.

There are three aspects of parliamentary autonomy that have been of particular
interest to our parliament:
1) to be able to regulate its own procedures,
2) to be able to regulate its own human resources, and
3) to be able to regulate its own finances.

Parliament for the most part has regulated its procedures and it has been so since
the introduction of the multi-party system. The most important act in that sense, beside
the Constitution, is the Rules of Procedures. Significant changes to this act were made
in a general consensus in 2006 so as to provide for more transparency of work, shifting
the focus from plenary to committee work, and stronger oversight mechanisms. A
debate was held at the time whether the rules should be adopted as a law. The fact is
that rules of procedure do not deal only with internal operations of parliament. For this
reason, there are examples of countries with rules of procedure adopted in a form of a
law. As far as Montenegro is concerned, rules are not a law, but the intention was to
emphasize the political responsibility throughout the process, and by doing so
strengthen the right of Parliament to demand information from governmental
representatives or to demand their presence at parliamentary sessions. Today, we can
20 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

say that it never happens that a governmental representative would fail to appear
before the Parliament if demanded to do so in accordance with the set procedures.

As you can see from the previous procedural autonomy, it was not and is not a big
challenge, but as far as financial and human resources autonomy are concerned the
situation is not as good. I have to say that in the last several months we have managed
to make significant improvements in these fields, but still a lot of work remains to be
done.

Currently, the Law on Budget determines procedures for preparation and planning
of the Montenegrin budget, as well as for its execution. According to the law,
Parliament is one of the spending units and it follows the same procedure as described
by the Law on Budget, like every other spending unit within the Government or
Judiciary.

In the process of budget planning, Parliament submits a request to the Ministry of

Finance for allocation of budget funds, after which the Ministry of Finance evaluates it,
holds talks with the Secretary General of the Parliament and proposes for the adoption
budget how it sees appropriate. Hence, the budget for every spending unit is proposed
by the Government and then sent to Parliament for adoption. There are also a number
of countries with similar proceedings, which may be considered as a partial autonomy
considering that in the course of parliamentary procedures, amendments may be
tabled by MPs and adopted in the plenary. Having in mind that debates for the
adoption of the state budget last one month, the practice has shown that Parliament
and its needs are rarely in focus even from the side of the MPs.

On the other hand, there are examples of countries, where parliament proposes its
budget to the government and the government may not change it, which is either
defined by law or is a matter of a good practice. In my humble opinion, having in mind
the concept of parliamentary autonomy, government should not be allowed to change
the budget proposal of Parliament during the preparation of the overall state budget if
the proposal is prepared in accordance with a set of criteria defined in advance. This is
something to be regarded in the long run for us.

However, even a bigger challenge for us, not so long ago, was the fact that the
Parliament could not decide on the dynamics of expenditures within the sum allocated
to Parliament by the Law on annual budget. Dynamic by which the money was
released towards the Parliament was the same like for every other budget unit or
ministry and it was ultimately decided by the Ministry of Finance. With the latest
changes of the Law on Budget, prepared by Parliament’s administration and supported
by all parliamentary clubs, Parliament independently decides how it will spend its
budget in accordance with the set priorities. How Parliament spends its budget is
under very detailed monitoring by NGOs.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 21

In terms of human resources autonomy, the challenge lied with the Law on Civil
Servants, which regulates the status of all civil servants. Also, in July, amendments to
this Law were adopted, allowing Parliament more autonomy from the Ministry of
Finance specifically, as it no longer has to consult with the Ministry over the financial
preconditions for new employments in the Parliament Administration, which was the
case before. For being able to have a new employee Parliament needs to have planned
budget resources as well as free position within the organizational structure. The
process of recruitment is implemented by the Governmental Human Resource
Administration, which implements it on the basis of conditions set by the Parliament,
while the Parliament makes the final decision on employment.

Administrative capacities have been and still are one of the most important
challenges for our Parliament. Efforts have been made to strengthen it with the
establishment and/or modernization of several organizational units such as ones
dealing with research, documentation, library, public relations, protocol, internal audit,
etc. Besides this work, our Parliament still employs a very small administrative service
of 97 persons or 1.2 employees per MP. Competent administration is crucial for the
autonomy of the Parliament since it is a precondition for MPs to be autonomous and to
get full support within the house, as well as to avoid the situation that MPs are
dependent in the decision making process on the information prepared by the
Government.

One of the results of the previously mentioned processes, I believe, clearer

understands of MPs and general public that Parliament has to strengthen its capacities
in order to perform its constitutional role in a proper way. There is general
understanding that parliament needs resources in order to be able to act more
efficiently and more independently from the executive branch.

Having in mind the specifics of parliamentary ambient, political sensitivities

because of a lack of resources on a more general level, we have tried to achieve the
understanding that a stronger and better resourced parliament is in the interest of all.
We managed to avoid partisan attacks and politicization of Parliament’s development
process because steps taken for the development of a more capable parliament should
not have much to do with party politics. In addition, the public relations unit, and the
entire team as well, has had a role to play in making sure that the public knows about
the important work of Parliament and its relevance to the everyday life of a citizen.
This has proved to be very significant because analysis has shown that we have to
present work that is being done in the Parliament in a better way and daily. Otherwise,
the general public just perceives parliament through plenary debates which are
broadcast, often measuring its efficiency only through the number of MPs sitting in
plenary.

With more resources and more rights, along comes a need for Parliament to
demonstrate responsibility in using the funds rationally and transparently. As the
supreme legislative body in a democracy charged with regulating the country’s social
and economic relations, Parliament must find a way to bring together different
22 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

interests and to set public interest as a common goal, which intention must be
recognized among the citizens. In order to meet the two mentioned requirements, the
Montenegrin Parliament started issuing annual reports on its activities and in July this
year it has published its first semi-annual report. Annual financial reports are also
made public with the obligation of the Secretary General to testify before the
Committee for Budget and Finance about how the funds were used twice a year. These
activities are open for the public and they have been recognized as a positive step by
both NGOs and the general public. We intend to continue and, where needed, improve
this practice in future by providing as much information about our work as possible.

There is, of course, still significant room for improvement and some actions, that
have to be taken in the period before us, are becoming clearer. On the other hand,
experience has shown that it is important to gradually introduce changes, as well as
that they have to be understood by all as part of an ongoing process. Timing is also
very important since our mutual goal is to introduce new and better practices in time
when their potential for reform is most significant.

Parliament must act responsibly with the new competences provided with the said
changes. It must continue to walk the path of progress keeping in mind that doing the
work in the public interest is its ultimate goal.”



Mrs Jacqueline BIESHEUVEL VERMEIJDEN (Netherlands) said that in her

country Parliament set its own agenda, and members of the government had to come
to Parliament when requested to do so. She asked whether this also held true in
Montenegro.

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked how many female Members there were in
the Montenegrin Parliament, the extent to which the courts intervened to restrict
parliamentary autonomy, whether the Finance Ministry attempted to restrict
parliamentary spending and whether elected Members intervened in recruitment to
the parliamentary service.

Mr Damir DAVIDOVIC replied that the Parliament had full freedom to organise
its own agenda, but the number of government bills did tend to dictate business
priorities. Government ministers did always in practice attend Parliament when asked
to do so, in committees as well as in the Chamber. The Prime Minister and Cabinet
attended Parliament to answer questions at least once every two months.
Approximately 10 of the 81 MPs were women. The Constitutional Court was the only
superior body that could challenge parliamentary rules of procedure. Recruitment to
the parliamentary service was carried out by the government human resources
department, and vacancies were publicly advertised. Vacancies were judged against
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 23

criteria chosen by the parliamentary service. MPs had no involvement in recruitment,

but did not have personal assistants, and this was causing some pressure.
24 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

THE CHALLENGES PARLIAMENTARY

COMMITTEES FACE IN EXERCISING
OVERSIGHT FUNCTIONS ON THE EXECUTIVE

Austin ZVOMA
Clerk of Parliament (Zimbabwe)

Objective
This paper critically analyzes the administrative and procedural challenges
encountered by Parliament and committees in the Legislature’s oversight function. The
paper also reviews experiences from other jurisdictions. Finally, it argues the need for
greater symbiotic relationship between the Executive and Parliament to enhance
democracy and governance.

Introduction
The overarching mandate of Parliament as the legislative authority is universally
recognized. In Zimbabwe, it is derived from section 50 of the Constitution which states
“Parliament may make laws for the peace, order and good government of Zimbabwe”.
This constitutional provision gives parliament the broad function of strengthening the
governance system by calling the Executive to account for the manner it determines
and executes public policy and programmes. The Parliamentary Reform Committee
(PRC: 1997) acknowledged the proper role of Parliament as described by Mill (1861)
that :
“instead of the function of governing, for which it is radically unfit, the proper office of a
representative assembly is to watch and control the government; to throw the light of publicity
on its acts; to compel a full exposition and justification of all of them which anyone considers
questionable; to censure them if found condemnable…”.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 25

Barnett (2009), arguing that very little had changed since 1861, observed that
‘Parliament is not there to govern: that is for the executive. Parliament exists to
represent the views and opinions of the people and to influence, constrain and demand
justification for the actions of government and to give them legitimacy’. Embodied in
the above statements are the universally recognized roles legislatures which are;
Legislative, Representative and Oversight. Before outlining the challenges of executive
oversight, it is necessary to define the term ‘oversight’.

Executive Oversight
The United States Military Dictionary defines executive oversight as ‘the
supervision by the Congress of governmental agencies and other bodies, such as the
military through standing committees of the House and Senate and also by panels
convened for a special purpose…’In such committees members of Congress gather
information and dictate the preferred course of action’. Kaiser (2006) observed that
executive oversight entails reviewing, monitoring, and supervision of operations and
activities. Oversight takes a variety of forms and utilizes various techniques. These
range from specialized investigations by select committees to annual appropriations
hearings. Oversight is supported by a variety of authorities: the Constitution, public
law, and chamber and committee rules- and it is an integral part of the system of
checks and balances between the Legislature and the Executive.

As an outgrowth of the system of checks and balances, oversight ideally serves a

number of overlapping objectives and purposes such as; -
• Improve the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of governmental operations;
• Evaluate programmes and performance
• Detect and prevent poor administration, waste, abuse, arbitrary and capricious
behavior, or illegal and unconstitutional conduct;
• Protect civil liberties and constitutional rights;
• Inform the general public and ensure that executive policies reflect public
interest;
• Gather information to develop new legislative proposals or amend existing
statutes;
• Ensure administrative compliance with legislative intent;
• Prevent Executive encroachment on legislative authority and prerogatives

However, according to Mills(1861) and Barnett(2009), respect for the separation of

powers indicates that oversight is not synonymous with supervision which Kaiser
seems to suggest.

Powers and Mode of Inquiry of Parliamentary Committees

In a constitutional or parliamentary democracy, the Executive is accountable to
Parliament as the elected representative institution. It is Parliament’s duty to deliberate
on and pass laws, to scrutinize government programmes and expenditure and to make
the Executive accountable. Parliament performs its oversight role by scrutinizing
26 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

government policies, programmes, and expenditure plans. This is done, among other
things, by making inputs into, approving and monitoring the national budget.
Parliament of Zimbabwe, through its 25 pre-audit oversight committees comprising 19
Portfolio Committees in the House of Assembly and 6 Thematic Committees of the
Senate, monitors all government policies and programmes to ensure not only efficient
use of national resources, but also greater accountability and transparency. In addition,
the Committee of Public Accounts in the House of Assembly has a post-audit function.

A portfolio committee’s terms of reference include monitoring, investigating and

enquiring into the budget, policy or any other matter it may consider relevant to the
government department falling within the category of affairs assigned to it.

One of the tried and tested methods of enquiry by a parliamentary committee is to

conduct a hearing in order to gather evidence to assist the committee to make informed
findings and recommendations to Parliament/the House. The enquiry process often
involves committee field visits. In Zimbabwe, a committee usually only requires the
Speaker’s/President of the Senate’s approval to travel beyond the precincts of
Parliament. A parliamentary committee also has powers ‘to summon any person to
appear before it to give evidence on oath or affirmation….or to produce any
documents’. These powers are enhanced by the Privileges Immunities and Powers of
Parliament Act (PIPPA) [Chapter 2:08] which makes it a punishable offence for a
witness before Parliament to:

i) willfully fail or refuse to obey any rule, order or resolution of Parliament (and
this includes any of its committees);
ii) disobey any summons issued in terms section eleven;
iii) refuse to be examined before or to answer any lawful and relevant question put
by Parliament or a committee;
iv) willfully obstruct or prevent a committee of Parliament from conducting its
work.

Parliamentary privilege is a special right by Parliament as a body, members as

individuals as well as witnesses who appear before Parliament. This privilege is part of
the law in Zimbabwe. Section 4 of PIPPA provides that the privileges immunities and
powers of Parliament and members and officers of Parliament shall be part of the
general and public law and it shall not be necessary to plead them but they shall be
judicially noticed in all courts. Therefore, failure to comply with any of the above
constitutes a punishable contempt of Parliament.

Most, if not all, Parliaments have similar provisions that guarantee their
independence which extends to their committees. However, the road to fulfilling
parliament’s oversight function is often littered with Executive landmines of varying
shapes, size and potential to maim parliamentary committees. This could include a
Minister or Secretary giving such excuses as prior commitments clashing with a
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 27

scheduled committee hearing, the ministry still researching on information requested

and committee encroachment on Executive functions or exceeding its powers.

Challenges of the Committee’s Visit to Chiadzwa Diamond Fields

Having outlined the powers and functions of parliamentary committees in
Zimbabwe, it is important to share an experience one of these committees has
encountered in the execution of its oversight function. Comparisons are also drawn
from similar experiences in other Parliaments.

In February 2010, the Secretary for Mines and Mining Development and Chief
Executive Officers (CEOs) of two mining companies (Mbada and Canadile) elected not
to appear before the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy to give oral evidence
on Chiadzwa Diamond Fields. They cited the parliamentary subjudice rule and argued
that the committee’s inquiry concerned ‘matters that the Committee and its members
are precluded from hearing or putting questions on or debating …by reason of the fact
that these are matters on which a judicial decision is pending.’ This was in reference to
an ownership suit of the diamond field before the courts. Consequently, they further
argued that their ventilation before the Committee was likely to undermine or
compromise their defence. They declared that no official would appear before the
Committee to answer questions regarding Chiadzwa. They only appeared before the
committee after Parliament advised them that the matter was not subjudice as it was
within the privileges of Parliament. Quoting sources of parliamentary law and practice,
Parliament informed the two mining companies and the Ministry of Mines that the
argument that a matter was pending before the courts was not a defence and that
refusal or failure to appear before the committee constituted contempt of Parliament as
described above. PIPPA does not provide for that defence or privilege. In any case, that
claim cannot be pleaded outside the forum that is calling a witness. Parliament
maintained that its quasi-judicial powers obliged the CEOs to appear before the
committee to justify their claim of privilege or else they would be adjudged to be in
contempt of Parliament. This position is supported by celebrated authors, Hoffmann
and Zeffert(1994) in their book The South African Law of Evidence. They make the
observation that a witness entitled to privilege must submit to be sworn and listen to
the questions before he can claim the right to refuse to answer specific questions if they
fall within the scope of his privilege.

Parliament further observed that the matter of the Chiadzwa Diamond Fields had
been widely publicized in the media with the ministry taking no legal action on the
media precisely because there was no offence committed.

Furthermore, PIPPA has adequate mechanisms to protect a witness before a

committee. In terms of the provisions of Section 13 of the Act, a witness who has
appeared before Parliament or a Committee is entitled upon application to the
chairperson of the Committee to a certificate issued by Parliament. The mere
production of that certificate in any court shall have the effect of permanently staying
proceedings.
28 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

When the parties concerned still refused to appear the Committee, the Clerk of
Parliament resorted to the provisions of PIPPA by issuing summonses to the directors
of the mining companies. The directors duly appeared before the committee to escape
contempt of Parliament charges. Parliament, therefore, successfully asserted its
authority to require Members of the Executive and the mining company
representatives to appear before the committee.

The Portfolio Committee has hitherto not been able to undertake its planned visit to
the diamond fields. Entry into the fields is restricted and controlled by the police under
the Ministry of Home Affairs in terms of the Protected Areas Act [Chapter 11:12]. That
Act compels anyone intending to visit the fields to obtain clearance from the Ministry
of Home Affairs and a pass from Police Headquarters. Consequently, after travelling
some 300km, the committee was denied access into the protected diamond fields by the
police for not having clearance. Conflicting information on the procedure for obtaining
clearance for the visit was only resolved by Parliament quoting chapter and verse in
the statute. The re-arranged visit has still not taken place due to the late
communication of the clearance to the Police.

This development clearly illustrates the legal bottlenecks occasioned by a seeming

tussle for exercise of authority between Parliament and the Ministries of Mines and
Mining Development and Home Affairs each relying on a separate Act of Parliament.
These are PIPPA, the Mines and Minerals Act [Chapter 21:05] and the Protected Places
and Areas Act [Chapter 11:12].

Analysis of Issue
It is clear that undertaking Executive oversight is a challenging exercise as the
Executive appears reluctant to cooperate with Parliament for misplaced ‘fear of
damaging exposure’, and its intended and unintended consequences, particularly on
the perceived sensitivity associated with the mining and sale of the newly found
diamonds. Failure by the Executive to timeously clear the visit to Chiadzwa may be
viewed as a contemptuous attitude towards Parliament. It is debatable whether
Parliament requires clearance to visit areas of interest, particularly protected areas.

A close examination of relevant provisions of PIPPA and the Protected Places and
Areas Act [Chapter 11:12] does not suggest the existence of conflict. Consequently, the
above episode can only result from mutual mistrust between the committee and the
two ministries concerned.

It is clear that Parliament and/or its Committees have no powers of automatic entry
into premises, protected or unprotected. The committee assumed that its investigative
powers give it powers of automatic entry. Therefore, the investigative function of
Parliament is sue generis in that it must be carried out in a different mode compared to
how other agencies carry out their functions. It is apparent that in carrying out their
investigative role, parliamentary committees are not accorded any special treatment or
privilege by the law. As the Protected Places and Area Act does not provide for
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 29

exemptions to members or committees of Parliament, it is a legal requirement for them

to obtain clearance.

For the doctrine of the separation of powers to work effectively, there must be
mutual respect among the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary which have
separate but co-ordinate roles. The inherent state of ‘comity’ should be upheld and as
such, there it should not be necessary to over-legislate to compel the Executive to
comply with requests from Parliament necessary for its oversight function.

Experiences from Australia and South Africa: Claims of Executive Privilege

The experience of the Australian Senate which in 1975 and 1994 encountered serious
claims of ‘executive privilege’ by the Government may provide a useful comparison.

Anne Lynch and Barbara Allan (2005) noted that in the Australian Senate, matters
relating to claims of executive privilege gained prominence in 1975 during the loans
affairs. The battle between the Senate and Executive government has continued since
that time, with the balance of advantage on claims of executive privilege having shifted
to a considerable degree from the Executive to the Senate. No longer will the Senate
accept the Executive’s blanket assertions of privilege or public interest immunity.
Consequently, the Senate now orders the production of documents, and indeed has by
order sought the creation of such documents by the Executive.

In most cases the orders have been complied with by the executive government,
however, under limited and controversial circumstances, the government has refused
to provide the required information to the Senate and its committees. As a result, in
1994 the Leader of the Australian Democrats introduced into the Senate the
Parliamentary Privileges Amendment (Enforcement of Lawful Orders) Bill, proposing
that in the case of a Senate Demand for material being refused by executive
government, the Federal Court should act as an Independent Arbitrator. Refusal to
produce such information may result in contempt of court proceedings. However,
having taken evidence from a significant range of persons with an interest in the
matter, the Senate Committee on Privileges concluded that removing the responsibility
to make such determinations from the Senate to the Courts was inappropriate. It was
asserted that ultimate power lay within the Senate and it was for the Senate to assert
that power.

A similar development in South Africa involves a tussle between Parliament and the
Executive with the Select Committee of Public Accounts (SCOPA) and Minister of
Defence taking different positions each using separate legal opinions to support their
conflicting positions in respect of their mandates. In short, In April, 2010, the minister
failed to appear before Parliament’s public spending watchdog, SCOPA, to answer
questions about her department’s poor financial spending in spite of the attendance
before the committee by other ministers. The bone of contention seems to be SCOPA’s
demand an interim report on which the Executive has not yet reached a decision. On
the other hand, some legal experts view SCOPA as exceeding its parliamentary
oversight role.
30 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

The same experience is relevant to the context of the Portfolio Committee on Mines
and Energy. Refusal or reluctance by the Executive to clear the visit to Chiadzwa could
be construed to mean non-cooperation by the Executive. Accordingly, Parliament
should reassert its claim on Parliamentary privileges and demand, using persuasive
means, that it be allowed access to Chiadzwa diamond fields. In any case, the
parliamentary oversight function is meant to strengthen the Executive.

Conclusion
From the above, it is evident that parliamentary convention and practice do not
grant Parliament powers to direct the Executive and its arms to cooperate with any of
its committees or to invoke the provisions of parliamentary privilege relating to
contempt. It is also clear that in the execution of its oversight function on Executive
programmes and activities, Parliament encounters many challenges and these can best
be resolved by a persuasive rather than an adversarial approach.

References
1. Anne Lynch and Barbara Allan (2005)
2. Constitution of Zimbabwe
3. Frederick M. Kaiser, Congressional Oversight, Order Code 97-936 GOV
4. Hoffmann and Zeffert (1994), The South African Law of Evidence
5. House of Assembly Standing Orders, First Edition. 2005
6. Mills, I. S. 1861 Representative Government as cited in Barnett (2009)
Constitutional and Administrative Law, Cavendish Publishing Company, London
7. Parliament Reform Committee Report(1997), Parliament of Zimbabwe
8. Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act (Cap 2.08)
9. US Military Dictionary (2002) The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S.
Military. Oxford University Press, Inc.”



Mr Alain DELCAMP (France) said that parliamentary oversight was a key topic for
parliaments today, and he suggested a general debate at a future session. He noted the
difference between the French and Westminster approaches to the subject. In the
French tradition, Parliament could overthrow the Government, while in the
Westminster tradition, Parliament was there to support the Government. Parliaments
made laws, but were not there to contribute to instability apart from in a crisis.
Oversight should be a daily task for parliaments and parliamentarians.
Parliamentarians needed to engage in post-legislative scrutiny to see how the laws they
had passed were implemented in practice.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 31

Mr Ghulam Hassan MALWAN (Afghanistan) said that in his view oversight was
key to effective relations between Government and Parliament. However, when this
concept was wrongly understood, Government sought to minimise oversight and
Parliament sought to intervene in executive decisions. He asked what the main tools
were for achieving a balance between these tendencies.

Mr Emmanuel ANYIMADU (Ghana) said that in his experience, parliamentary

committees often lacked the expertise to conduct oversight effectively. He asked if
parliamentary committees in other countries engaged experts before embarking on
inquiries, and what problems they encountered in taking on this assistance.

Dr V.K. AGNIHOTRI (India) concurred that “oversight” and “supervision” were

not synonymous. In India, parliamentary committees’ recommendations had only
persuasive value, and were not binding on the Government. The Government was
much more loath to reject the recommendations of ad hoc select committees than it was
to reject those of standing committees, because those of ad hoc committees had to be
defended and potentially voted on in the Chamber.

Mrs Doris Katai Katebe MWINGA (Zambia) asked Mr Zvoma to what extent he
had sought to verify claims by potential witnesses that the sub judice rule applied to
the evidence being requested of them. She also noted the tendency of potential
witnesses to claim that defence and security considerations applied to their evidence.
Committees in Zambia had considered calling former First Ladies to give evidence,
and she wondered if this had also happened in other countries.

Mr Claude FRIESEISEN (Luxembourg) explained that his national Parliament

operated many of the traditional forms of oversight described by other speakers. He
noted two particular developments over the past ten years: first, that the chairmanship
of the most sensitive committees in his Parliament was now, with the blessing of the
Government, given to a member of the Opposition; second, the role of
parliamentarians in evaluating the impact of policies previously adopted, as
mentioned already by Mr Delcamp.

Mr Zingile DINGANI (South Africa) commented on the failure of Ministers to

appear before the Zimbabwean Public Accounts Committee, and suggested that there
was a constitutional requirement for them to appear. Committees needed to have
recourse to the Speaker or presiding officer if a deadlock emerged between the will of a
committee and that of the Executive, but committees sometimes forgot that they were
creatures of the House rather than independent entities. Committee chairs often
preferred to listen to legal advice as opposed to procedural advice, and this sometimes
led to mistakes. The answer to this was to ensure that combined legal and procedural
advice were available through a single source. He also asked how it could be consistent
with oversight and parliamentary independence that a committee of Parliament should
need to ask the Executive for permission to conduct inquiries. Finally, he asked what
would have happened if the companies mentioned by Mr Zvoma had refused to
respond to the subpoenas issued to them.
32 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Mr Edwin BELLEN (Philippines) asked if the Zimbabwean Parliament had any

rules governing the conduct of committee inquiries. In the Philippines, Congress was
required by the Constitution to have such rules and to respect the rights of witnesses.
He also asked how the Zimbabwean Parliament could cite a witness as being in
contempt, and whether this could be challenged in the courts. Finally, he asked who
had the right to invoke executive privilege, and on what grounds.

Mrs Jacqueline BIESHEUVEL-VERMEIJDEN (Netherlands) mentioned recent

legislative instruments in her country aimed at supporting the scrutiny function of
Parliament. She asked for clarification on the matter of Chiadzwa Diamond Fields.

Mr Austin ZVOMA agreed with Mr Delcamp’s suggestion that there should be a

future general debate on related issues, particularly given the clear differences between
the French and Westminster models of oversight. He noted the power of Westminster-
based parliaments to overthrow Governments by means of a vote of no confidence. He
also agreed with Mr Malwan’s proposition that committee oversight was a tool for co-
operation between Parliament and Government, but that Governments tended not to
see it so positively. In response to Mr Anyimadu’s point, Parliaments did indeed often
lack expertise, particularly when compared with the Executive, and there was a
constant fight for adequate resources. The Zimbabwean Parliament did sometimes hire
experts from the private sector and universities to work with committees, and was
seeking to build capacity in areas of particularly sustained focus. Committee teams
were trained, for example, to understand resource-based management accounts and
budgets, as used in Government. Parliament needed to add value to the law-making
process, not just simply to be a pathway through which laws passed. While there were
rules for setting up ad hoc committees, these were very rarely invoked. The sub judice
rule could not be used to avoid appearing before a committee altogether. Committee
Members could not use privilege to override statutory requirements for them to receive
clearance before visiting a protected area. Witnesses did sometimes appear before
committees in private. Zimbabwe did not have the problem of First Ladies cited by Mrs
Mwinga, and only the President could refuse altogether to appear before a committee.
Mr Zvoma was very interested in pursuing the idea of post-legislative scrutiny. In
response to Mr Dingani, he suggested a fuller discussion of the role of the Speaker.
Permanent Secretaries in Zimbabwe were directly responsible to Parliament for the
day-to-day administration of their departments, as opposed to policy, which was a
matter for Ministers. Executive privilege was rarely applicable, except where matters of
military secrets were concerned: it was always possible for a witness to appear before a
committee in private.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 33

TRANSPARENCY AND EXEMPLARITY AS

CRITERIA GUIDING PARLIAMENTARY ACTIVITY

Manuel Alba NAVARRO

Secretary General of the Congress of Deputies (Spain)

1. Regardless of the type of political system each country has given itself and of the
very different situations each nation faces, it does not seem contentious to state that our
Parliaments and their members are not presently at the height of their popularity.

I cannot deny that my thoughts are influenced by my country’s own circumstances.

However, they are also significantly influenced by readings and contacts with the
reality in other countries, whose Parliaments have recently seen their image and
credibility seriously tarnished.

2. Within an extremely complex situation, which would require a detailed and in-
depth analysis, we could list a number of causes that have contributed to this
phenomenon. Without ranking them in terms of relative importance, we could stress,
amongst others, the following:

 Failure to adapt traditional parliamentary procedures to a social reality that has

undergone considerable transformations, in the light of which certain practices appear,
at the very best, incomprehensible.

 The inadequacy of certain election systems, widely contested by citizens, the

effects of which are particularly visible in the internal workings of Parliaments.

 The fierce competition Parliament suffers in what is perhaps its main task:
representing the people. This competition comes from at least two main fronts:
34 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

– civil society itself, through its networks (a clear example being NGOs)
– the media, more powerful than ever before, who have appropriated most (or all?)
of the public sphere, deciding what matters to citizens and what does not, and
establishing its own codes regarding what is (current) newsworthy and what is not.
Ultimately, we are faced with the age-old question of controlling the agenda.

 The challenge, inherent to Parliaments themselves, of establishing unified

communications strategies that are homogenous and vested with clear institutional
significance. In a context like Parliament, where not all actors are rowing in the same
direction, this handicap is practically impossible to overcome.

 Last but not least, the worldwide financial crisis has not made a beneficial
contribution to the perception of the political class and of parliamentarians in
particular.

3. All these causes, and some others which I am sure will spring to mind, are
compounded, if not by a disappearance of ideologies or the traits that differentiate one
political option from another, at least by a process of mainstreaming whereby, if not
more active, citizens are clearly less ‘aligned’ in the sense of providing unconditional
support to one or another political force and are often critical of them all. The common
expression “they’re all the same”, applied to politicians, sums up what I mean.

In these circumstances, where citizens are unwilling to accept parliamentary

discourse without taking a critical stance, the value of representatives’ words, pledges,
projects and programmes inevitably lose part of the strength or power of attraction
they once had. And all of this regardless of whether they are inherently good or bad.

In other words: what parliamentarians say takes a back seat to what

parliamentarians do. Citizens today are resolved to demand from their representatives,
universally and unavoidably, that old virtue: exemplarity.

This question has been pointed out in a number of recent publications.

4. Clearly this is not the relevant forum for a political-philosophical dissertation, nor
do I intend to offer one. If I raise this question (in my communication) here, it is
because this phenomenon, which I would dare to describe as universal, has a direct
impact on the organisation and procedures within our Parliaments.

Firstly, this reality demands an extra effort in terms of transparency, which has not
always been an element of parliamentary custom, to put it mildly. The old principle of
interna corporis acta, whereby parliamentary independence provided a comprehensive
justification for not disclosing Parliament’s internal affairs, can no longer be sustained.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 35

It is possibly true that all our Chambers have taken steps towards a greater
transparency. But it is possibly also true (and one need only cast an eye over the press
in the past few months) that efforts have not been sufficiently intense or sincere. In
addition to this, we must bear in mind that today’s technologies allow for public
scrutiny by each individual and not necessarily through the traditional institutions
devoted to these tasks (Courts of Auditors, Prosecutors, etc.). Gone are the days of
instrumental excess and false clothes – the Emperor is naked again and exposed to
public opinion.

5. Regardless of each country or each Chamber’s specificities, I am probably not

mistaken in saying there are features that are sensitive for public opinion the world
over. These naturally include parliamentarians’ compensation, both monetary and in
the form of (benefits) "perquisites", travel expenses, activities in (parallel) addition to
their parliamentary mandate, major works or refurbishment carried out on
parliamentary premises, and, in general, the Chambers’ budgets. This list could be
more extensive, but I have kept it to the most obvious or universal items.

6. The Spanish Parliament has recently adopted a number of decisions that may
appear elementary to other Chambers, but nonetheless represent a turn towards
greater transparency and exemplarity in the conduct of its institution and its members.

Amongst others, I would point out the following:

 Including on our website references to Members’ financial conditions (wages, etc.)

and material support (offices, computer equipment, etc.), as well as (compensation for)
reimbursement of expenses.

 Also including on our website the conditions governing severance payments or

pension bonuses for parliamentarians.

 Stipulating and reviewing rationalised criteria for travel funded by the Chamber.
This has resulted in restrictions on certain activities and even suspending our
participation in some international Parliamentary Assemblies.

 Review of the Standing Orders to allow for disclosure of plenary sittings dealing
with Members’ activities (in parallel) in addition to their parliamentary attributions.

 Adopting a new electronic format that is more understandable and easier to

circulate for the Register of Members’ Interest and Activities, including all the activities
they declare and are approved by the Chamber.

7. One could say that these or similar measures may not ensure citizens’ satisfaction
with the performance of their Parliament or its members. One could also think that
they are insufficient contributions in the search for exemplarity in public office. But to
36 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

my understanding, they are steps in the right direction. If we want to reset the
connection between representatives and those they represent, there is no other option
than to move towards our citizens, understand their position and attempt, once again,
to bring them closer to Parliament.”



Dr V.K. AGNIHOTRI (India) said that transparency concerning the conduct of

MPs was becoming more important as a result of a combination of declining standards
of conduct and the increasing right to information. Activists were engaged in trying to
uncover wrongdoing by MPs. Within Parliament, registers of interests were one way of
increasing transparency, while Ethics Committees could enforce sanctions where
standards had been breached.

Dr Ulrich SCHÖLER (Germany) asked about the travel activities of Spanish

Members of Parliament. What measures could be taken to combat mass-media
populism, which wanted to see Members of Parliament engaged on the international
stage without ever spending any money on travel? He asked for further information
about those international assembly activities in which the Spanish Parliament had
decided not to participate.

Mr Alain DELCAMP (France) thought that there was a philosophical and

principled dimension to this issue. The fact was that the more Parliaments were
transparent, the more people would complain about those things that were hidden. It
was important to be exemplary, but also not to be paralysed by fear of public opinion.
Transparency was not sufficient to make for a functioning society.

Mr Brendan KEITH (United Kingdom) asserted the principle of accountability, and

stated that transparency was a modern manifestation of that principle. There was no
choice but to be transparent: for one thing, it was provided for in the law of many
countries. The British parliamentary system of ethical regulation was much as in India.
Lords’ interests could be placed on the internet within 15 minutes of the information
being received.

Mr Zingile DINGANI (South Africa) said that this subject was provoking a
broader debate about the role of parliamentarians and what citizens believed they
stood for. Party lists distanced parliamentarians from citizens compared with
constituency-based systems. Parliaments needed to show how they had added value to
the lives of the people of their countries.

Mr André GAGNON (Canada) asked whether the decision in the Spanish Chamber
of Deputies to cut spending on travel had preceded or succeeded the publication of
information on this spending.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 37

Mr Sadettin KALKAN (Turkey) spoke of the situation in his country, where

parliamentary proceedings were available on the internet and television. Freedom of
information requests needed to be responded to within 15 days. 1 million visitors every
year visited the Turkish Parliament.

Mr Philippe SCHWAB (Switzerland) spoke of competition between Parliament

and celebrity judges, who in Switzerland conducted very public inquiries into political
issues in which parliamentarians were already involved. This often placed pressure on
Parliament to launch committee inquiries into sensitive issues such as the financing of
political parties, which had to be conducted both transparently and in an exemplary
manner. He asked whether the role of the celebrity judge was affecting the work of the
Spanish Parliament.

Mrs Jacqueline BIESHEUVEL-VERMEIJDEN (Netherlands) described a situation

in her Parliament in which Members had been conducting a parallel debate on Twitter
at the same time as a debate in the Chamber. The Speaker had complained that the
comments on Twitter damaged the transparency of the parliamentary debate.

Mrs Barbara GEORGOPOULOU (Greece) described developments in her country,

including public contracts for defence equipment, a review of parliamentary
immunities and a redesign of the parliamentary website.

Mr KWON Oh Eul (Republic of Korea) said that the media did not always report
parliamentary behaviour in a way that was in the public interest, reporting information
selectively and partially in order to attack parliamentarians and the National Assembly
rather than promoting transparency.

Mr Damir DAVIDOVIC (Montenegro) said that proceedings in his country were

as transparent as they could be. All travel requests were discussed in a collegium of
senior parliamentarians. The fact (but not the cost) of travel by Members of Parliament
was reported publicly. Disclosing financial information about Parliament had relieved
pressure from campaigners, but Parliament still remained a punching bag for the
media and NGOs. Secretaries General were sometimes placed in a difficult situation
when Members made commitments to journalists on reducing expenditure which they
had no intention of meeting.

Mr Manuel Alba NAVARRO (Spain) commented on the large number of

interventions there had been. His purpose in making the communication had been to
concentrate on the broad ideas of transparency and exemplarity, rather than to
describe every single example, and not to boast of any particular achievements in
Spain. He was not sure if self-regulation, as described in India, was adequate, or if
external control was required. The Bureau of the National Assembly sometimes reacted
to particular situations rather than looking at the broader picture. In response to Dr
Schöler, Members of the National Assembly did not now take part in the WEU
38 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Parliamentary Assembly, and took part in only one of two gatherings for the
Mediterranean region. The public did not recognise MPs as having the status of
aristocrats, as suggested by Mr Delcamp. Obligations of transparency and exemplarity
could be fulfilled in different ways. Politicians in Spain appeared on popular television
programmes more often in order to reach a wider audience. On travel, there was
relatively little transparency compared with some other countries, but a lot of internal
pressure to cut costs. There had been many problems in Spain with simultaneous
parliamentary committee inquiries and judicial inquiries, sometimes conducted by
“star judges” (some of whom were now on trial themselves). MPs in Spain were not
allowed to access the internet within the Chamber or to broadcast proceedings.
Technology was a means to an end: it could prevent as much as enhance transparency.
Partial transparency was a bit like partial pregnancy. Spain was far from a perfect
example of transparency and exemplarity.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 39

INTRODUCING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

IN THE CHAMBER

V.K. AGNIHOTRI
Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha (India)

Introduction
1. Enormous technological advances, particularly in the field of information
technology, have impacted every field of human endeavour, transforming our lives in
an unprecedented manner. Working of Legislatures has been greatly transformed due
to adoption of such technologies. As in the legislatures of the world’s advanced
countries, information technology is widely used in the Indian Parliament. It has
embraced new technology to bring greater efficiency to parliamentarians’ work inside
the Chamber as well as in terms of connecting with their constituents. Presiding
Officers continue to make several efforts with regard to efficient management of scarce
legislative time so as to enhance the effectiveness of the Legislature. A number of
innovative changes in the established norms and conventions have been made by the
Indian Parliament in this regard from time to time. In recent times, certain innovative
information technology tools have been put in place inside the Chamber of the Rajya
Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, which aim at effective time
management of the House. This paper focuses on two such applications, which have
the potential to bring about a perceptive change in the way parliamentary activities are
carried on inside the House.

Time Management for Effective Functioning of the House

2. With a view to managing effectively the limited legislative time, technological
know-how has been put to use over the past couple of years. Among various modes of
debates, discussions and interventions in the House, the device of 'matters raised with
the permission of the Chair' (what is commonly known as the ‘Zero Hour’) provides an
40 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

important opportunity to the Members to highlight pressing issues affecting the lives
of people across the country. Generally, the issues agitating the minds of the Members
were so involved and the number of Members eager to raise the issues were so many,
that often the 'Zero Hour' turned out to be not only long-winded but also less orderly
and more difficult to manage. Several initiatives were taken in the past to regulate the
Zero Hour, which, inter alia, included fixing the time limit of three minutes for those
Members whose notices had been admitted by the Chairman to raise issues of urgent
public importance. For this, a digital clock was installed in the Chamber to compute the
duration of the three minutes with a countdown timer. After the stipulated time, the
mike of the Member was automatically switched off through remote control. This
system proved to be a success as Members followed the time restriction and were able
to articulate their views within the available time. Thus, up to ten matters could be
articulated within a period of less than half-an-hour.
3. Taking a cue from its success, newer information technology tools have been
developed to effectively manage the time for other discussions and debates that take
place inside the Chamber of the Rajya Sabha. Even the digital clock with countdown
timer has been subsumed under an Integrated Talk Time Management and Display
System, which has been recently put in place for time management during different
discussions, including the Zero Hour submissions.

Integrated Talk Time Management and Electronic Display System

4. An Integrated Talk Time Management and Electronic Display System has been
successfully installed in the Rajya Sabha. The system, in addition to the Zero Hour
submissions, also covers Short Duration Discussion, Calling Attention, Discussion on
the working of the Ministries, Discussion on Government Bills as well as Private
Members’ Bills and Resolutions. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has brought out a manual
on this new system, which explains its operation in detail. In brief, the system is
controlled by the Presiding Officer with the help of a touch screen PC placed on his/
her table. The information contained in the five lines on the touch screen is also
displayed on the two LED boards installed on the two sides of the Chamber. The top of
the touch screen shows the topic for discussion. The system consists of various modes
depending on the type of activity going on inside the Chamber. For example, the ‘Zero
Hour’ mode is switched on to operate in the Zero Hour. Accordingly, for the ‘Zero
Hour’ mode, the first line of the Touch Screen shows the name of the Member who is
speaking along with his party/ group affiliation. The Member’s division (seat) number
is shown at the left side of the second line and a count down timer, in ‘minutes:
seconds’ format, appears on the right side of the line. The time is displayed in the
descending order from 03:00 (3 minutes) to 00:00 (zero seconds). The mike of the
Member is automatically switched off when the timer reaches 00:00. The third line
shows the party affiliation of the Member speaking and the fifth line shows the name
of the Presiding Officer (namely the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman or the name of
the Vice-Chairman). When the Chair calls the next Member to speak, his mike gets
activated and the process is reiterated.
5. At the time of a discussion, such as General Discussion on the Budget or a Short
Duration Discussion, or discussion on Bills, etc., the 'Discussion' mode is selected.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 41

Along with the topic selected, the touch screen shows the name of the Member who is
speaking and his/ her party/ group at the time, his/ her division number, and the
time taken in the form of a count-up timer. It also indicates, in appropriate cases, the
total time allotted to the Member's party/ group and the time already consumed by
earlier speakers of his/ her party/ group, if any.
6. As regards the Calling Attention, Discussion on Private Members’ Bills/
Resolutions, etc., the 'Member Speaking' mode is selected and the time consumed by
the participating members is indicated individually, on the display board.
7. There is also a 'Pause' function button which has been provided to pause the timer
in case of any disturbance in the Chamber. Once paused, the button changes to the
[Start] button. The [Start] button should be touched after the interruptions are over.
The timer starts from the time it was stopped. Further, by pressing the 'Message'
button, a pre-recorded message can be displayed on the boards, such as 'House
Adjourned till 02:00 p.m.', 'Prime Minister's Reply', etc.
8. The touch screen also has provision for only the Chair to view the time allotted
and consumed by various parties/ groups at a given point of time by choosing the
appropriate 'Party Time' buttons.
9. Further measures to upgrade the system are in progress.

Dashboard Application System

10. In order to assist the Chairman to effectively conduct the business of the House,
a need had been felt for some time that information regarding Members, the location of
their seats, party affiliation, States to which they belong, their involvement in the
Question Hour in terms of asking Supplementary Questions, and other such data
should be made available to the Chair. Another important consideration had been to
streamline the process of allowing Supplementary Questions to the Members so that
the Question Hour could be made more efficient and effective. The role of the
Presiding Officer in giving opportunities to Members across the spectrum to ask
relevant supplementaries is one of the notable features of the Question Hour. For
example, a Member who has been permitted by the Chairman to put a supplementary
question on the previous or the same day may not generally be given another
opportunity during Question Hour on that day. In the Rajya Sabha, the Chairman has
regulated the number of supplementaries to starred questions besides emphasizing the
need for asking short and crisp supplementaries.
11. In such a scenario, access to relevant data in an organized and coherent format
was thought to be of considerable assistance to the Chairman, who earlier had to rely
on the information provided to him manually or had to seek the help of the officer(s) at
the Table. Against this backdrop, a Dashboard Application has been developed and
subsequently installed on the Chairman’s table in the Rajya Sabha Chamber. Data entry
and updation required for the software are taken care of by the Secretariat through
backroom operations. With the entire seating arrangement of Members, including their
party affiliation and other personal details, displayed on the screen on the Chairman’s
table, he is able to make informed selection of Members in giving them opportunities
to ask relevant supplementaries.
42 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

12. On logging into the Dashboard Application, the opening screen displays a
graphical presentation of the seating arrangement in the Chamber with the
membership of different political parties indicated in different colours. The numbers
mentioned on each coloured strip represent the Division Number assigned to each
Member. These Division Numbers are pre-fed into the system and on clicking at a
particular number, details of the Member, who has been assigned that particular seat,
get displayed on the screen with the photograph of the Member, his/ her name, the
State to which he/ she belongs, his/ her party affiliation and division number.
Information regarding ‘Supplementary Question Status’ indicating the
supplementaries asked by the Member during the previous sitting, during the current
week and also during the current Session is displayed at the bottom of the window. It
also shows the number of such questions asked by the Members belonging to the same
political party. In case of a Member of the Council of States, who is a Minister in the
Union Council of Ministers, the Supplementary Question Status Window does not
contain any information other than the information concerning supplementary
questions asked by the Members of his/ her party during the session.
13. The Seating Arrangement data is available in visual as well as list form. The task
bar at the bottom of the screen shows the following options for seeking a list or
graphical display of a set of Members :
• Party wise,
• State wise,
• Gender wise,
• Ministers in Rajya Sabha,
• Nominated Members,
• Supplementary Questions, and
• Council of Ministers.

14. When ‘Party Wise’ option is clicked, the ‘Select Party’ scroll down menu bar,
containing names of political parties in the Council, comes on the screen. Upon
selecting a party name, the screen shows the graphical layout of the seating
arrangement of that particular party in a pre-designated colour. For example, Indian
National Congress (INC) has been allotted the blue colour; so, the division numbers
(seats) which INC Members have been assigned is shown in blue colour. On selecting
‘ALL’ in the ‘Select Party’ menu bar, the graphical layout of the entire Chamber in
multi-colour can be seen, each colour indicating a certain party. The legend on the right
hand corner of the screen shows the names of the various parties (in alphabetical
order), their respective number of Members and the colour code by which they are
identified in the software. The smaller parties, each represented by a few Members,
have been assigned a single colour and are collectively indicated as ‘Others’.
15. Similarly, when the ‘State wise’ option is clicked, the scroll down menu bar gives
the names of all the States, and on selecting a particular State, all the Members who
have been elected from that State, belonging to different parties (indicated in different
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 43

colours in the graphical presentation) gets displayed. The ‘Gender wise’ option
generates a graphical display of the male and female Members in the Rajya Sabha
belonging to various parties. In the same manner, information regarding Nominated
Members and Members of Rajya Sabha in the Union Council of Ministers can be
accessed.
16. The same information in the list form can be obtained by clicking on Seating
Arrangement (List).
17. On the extreme left of the Task Bar, 'Report' option is there to facilitate the Chair
to find out particulars about the business in the Chamber during a particular sitting or
on a specific session/ date. When it is clicked, the List of Business, the papers to be laid
on the Table of the House, the Part-I Bulletin containing brief record of the proceedings
of the meeting of the Rajya Sabha on a particular day, the Part-II Bulletin issued for the
information of the Members, synopses of the previous sittings, the Questions list, Ballot
list, Minute book, Notices, Questions related information, Council of Ministers, etc. are
accessible to the Chair.
18. The Chair may also read the References through the Dashboard Application.
Facility has been provided to scroll page-wise or automatically setting the scroll speed.
19. The Hindi version of the Dashboard Application is also available.
Conclusion
20. It is generally acknowledged that howsoever developed the technology may be,
it is ultimately a tool in the hands of the user and its success or otherwise depends on
the way it is handled. In any Legislature the Presiding Officer acts as a referee and,
whatever tools are placed at his disposal, it is ultimately his discretion and judgment to
use them effectively. Same is the case with the utilization of information technology in
the Rajya Sabha Chamber. A lot depends on the Presiding Officer, who can give a
delicate human touch through his sense of fair play and discretion. For example,
during a discussion, if a Member exceeds the time allotted to him, as displayed on the
Board, the Chair can grant him extra time considering various circumstances. Similarly,
the personal interaction which a Chairman has with the Members informs his choices
when inviting supplementaries during the Question Hour. With the aid of the
software, the Chair can now instantaneously access details about the Member and this
information, combined with the acumen of the Chair can, no doubt, enhance the
performance of the Legislature manifold.”



Mr Ashfaque HAMID (Bangladesh) said that the automatic microphone cut-off

device was very useful for occupants of the Chair.
Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked if parliamentary groups had more time
than the three minutes normally allotted, whether speaking time could be traded
among Members and whether it was difficult to ensure that Members occupied the
seats allocated to them.
44 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Mr André GAGNON (Canada) asked how the new system had influenced the way
in which debates were managed from the Chair.
Dr V.K. AGNIHOTRI reinforced that the new system had been introduced in three
stages. The reverse time clock was only used in ‘zero hour’ debates when any matter
could be raised. When parties did not speak at all in a debate, the Chair could
reallocate their time to others.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 45

CURRENT ISSUES IN SUPPORTING THE

ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNCIL OF THE
FEDERATION

Vladimir SVINAREV
Secretary General of the Council of the Federation of the Federal
Assembly (Russian Federation)

1. No efforts are being spared to improve performance of the Council of

Federation Staff. The relevance of this line of work is high as the CoF law-making
process is gaining momentum. During the last spring session alone, the Council of
Federation passed as many as 250 bills achieving the best score registered over the past
years.

The Council of Federation holds numerous events both on the national and
international scale. This year, the Council of Federation sponsored The 3rd Neva
International Environment Congress in Saint-Petersburg, The 2nd “Russian Historical
and Cultural Heritage” Parliamentary Forum, various academic and research seminars
and workshops.

Since 2000, the Council of Federation has been and continues to be an active
participant of The Baikal Economic Biennial Forum that held its sixth session in early
September 2010. The high prestige of this international forum is evidenced by its high
international attendance including delegations from China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea,
Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The above events help improve the parliamentary law-making performance and
offer an effective channel of communication with the experts and civic organisations in
46 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Russia and worldwide. The arrangement of such events is a responsibility of the CoF
Staff.

Improvement of the events planning has been described by the CoF Chairman as a
major objective.

Last summer, the Council of the Upper Chamber approved the draft guidelines to
be applied when planning events arranged by the Upper Chamber. The document sets
out new provisions designed to enforce accountability with respect to events
planning. By way of example, during a spring (autumn) session a CoF committee or
commission may change the events agenda by shifting the event timing of cancelling
the event altogether only once. New events that may be suggested for inclusion in the
events agenda and that require funding will not be reviewed until they have been
agreed with the CoF Funding, Maintenance and Support Assurance Commission and
the CoF Finance Directorate.

2. Maintaining a swift and reliable interaction by and among the CoF Staff and
our counterpart organisations in the RF regional legislative assemblies is a major
line of our efforts. Regular workshops arranged by the CoF for legal, administrative
and press services have been an established practice for a long time now. Last year,
analysts and experts from regional legislative assemblies attended a workshop which
addressed issues relating to the provision of analytical support to the law-making
process. The participants discussed a potential contribution that analyst and expert
communities can make to the legislative process. The workshop was attended by
representatives of the RF Presidential Administration, RF Government Analytical
Centre, Public Chamber and State Duma. This year, the invitations to attend the
workshop will be extended to counterpart services with the RF regional governments.
The workshops are becoming increasingly important for us considering the new and
widely acclaimed form of legislative initiatives, i.e. the consolidated legislative
initiatives that are jointly elaborated and jointly submitted by the Council of Federation
and the legislative bodies of the Russian Federation constituent entities.

3. The Council of Federation, Upper Chamber of the Russian Federation Parliament,

has a varied reserve of experience in terms of the relationship with regional
legislatures. This experience could be attractive to many nations, specifically to federal
nations, nations where territorial entities forming the union have legislative bodies
with ample powers or nations with an effective local self-government system. We
invite all Parliaments that are members of the European Centre for Parliamentary
Research & Documentation (ECPRD) to attend the workshop that will tentatively be
held in Moscow under the ECPRD auspices in 2011.”


 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 47

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked if all of the events organised by the

Council of Federation took place in the parliament buildings. He also asked about the
planning process for such events.

Mr Vladimir SVINAREV (Russian Federation) explained that his Parliament had

constitutional powers to organise events and activities, in the case of his Chamber,
particularly to do with the regions. The Chamber as a whole considered and approved
a schedule of events and activities for each session. Every event was conducted in co-
operation with other bodies, including the Executive, the judicial community and civil
society.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 49

SUPPORT AND TRAINING FOR NEW MEMBERS

OF PARLIAMENT

General debate moderated by Doris Katai Katebe MWINGA

Clerk of the National Assembly (Zambia)

INTRODUCTION
In most Parliaments, after general elections, the newly elected Members of
Parliament are normally taken through processes of orientation, induction and
training. This is done in order to acquaint them with the basics and essentials of their
parliamentary duty. The orientation takes different forms in different parliaments from
a one day session to a week long orientation programme and the collection of
parliamentary documents from various offices.
The collection of the necessary documents is normally done at the registration stage.
Registration, therefore, is normally the first and thereafter the issue of accommodation
both residential and office. Similarly all the particulars pertaining to members are
given to parliamentary staff involved in the registration exercise. Normally the
information that is retained, relate to the member’s family background, their level of
education, their political and parliamentary backgrounds and their contact particulars
for ease of communicating to them when need arises.
GENERAL
Depending on whether there has been an increase to the size of the House, the
exercise of providing accommodation should be done as scrupulous as possible
regardless of their party, so that no member is found stranded. Allocation of seats in
the House is normally done well before the official opening of Parliament to avoid
commotion that can characterise the Chamber if no prior and adequate arrangements
were made.
50 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

The next item for new members is the induction process. In most Parliaments, the
induction of newly elected members into the parliamentary work is undertaken by
various units of the parliamentary administration as well as other past or experienced
Members of Parliament from the region.
This process includes the supply to Members of various items of essential
information in the form of brochures and memoranda on general, legal, financial and
practical mechanisms pertaining to a parliamentary mandate. Included in this
documentation for Members are notification of the agenda of the House sittings of the
new parliament, the texts of the Rules of Procedure, visiting procedures and guidelines
on the parliamentary right to put questions. In parliaments with provisions for
Members’ assistants, the Parliamentary Secretariat usually runs information events for
Members’ assistants and staff of the parliamentary groups focusing on Members rights
to put questions and on the procedure for preparing the plenary agendas and
parliamentary items such as draft laws and motions.
A key source of information for newly elected Members is the Guide for Members
or Members Handbook. This is a reference book which describes the wide-ranging
administrative, research and technical services provided by the Parliament
Administration. It also lists important contact persons and contains practical
information of relevance to the parliamentary routine.
Some parliaments will draw their induction programme in the following manner:
a) Tour of the Parliament premises
A practical tour with the purpose of acquainting new Members with the various
buildings and premises of Parliament;
b) Induction meeting for all Members at which the Parliament’s organisation,
working procedures and service functions are explained to the Members by the
Secretariat. An introduction to the work of the Chamber, the Committees and the
various bodies for parliamentary control, and the service functions of Parliament are
also given to the Members at this stage; and
c) Introduction to the Parliament’s computer network and the allocation of a
computer account.
Following the induction exercise, are professional development programmes. These
are meant to address the perceived knowledge and skills gap in the Members of
Parliament.
For new parliamentarians, the change of status upon election is obvious and
instantaneous. Unfortunately, they cannot be up and running and immediately grasp
all issues nor understand all aspects of the task of governance because there is no
research information nor definable academic base for human resource development
programmes comparable to those available to most other professions, despite the
necessity for Members to meet and manage the increasing pressures in contemporary
political life.

TRAINING OF NEW MEMBERS

 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 51

Given the diverse backgrounds of parliamentarians, it is important for training and

development programmes to focus on the skills and competencies required to function
effectively immediately upon election as well as on-going development for the
specialist skills required for such roles as Committee chairs. In this regard, the training
focuses on the critical roles of the Parliamentarians i.e. legislation and policy, scrutiny
and oversight Committee Proceedings of Parliament as well as budget analysis tools
for the approval of the national budgets.
THE ZAMBIAN SITUATION
In 2001 reforms in the National Assembly of Zambia were instituted in order to
enhance Parliament’s performance. With the advent of democracy and plural politics
in the country, issues of good governance and accountability have been highly
accentuated and continue to be among the great expectations of the people. To meet
these expectations, therefore, parliament ought to be efficient and effective in its
legislative services delivery. In order to do this, Parliament needed to put in place
mechanisms that enhanced this goal and become a real Parliament i.e.
R – Representative and Responsive
E – Efficient and Effective
A – Accessible and Accountable
L – Linked and Legitimate
The orientation, induction and training programme are thus focused on these four
tenets and are handled by the Secretariat, the Speaker and experienced Members of
Parliament including those from the region and representatives from International
Parliamentary Organizations.
The Secretariat plays a pivotal role in the orientation and induction of Members,
starting with the preparations up to the actual orientation and induction process. The
induction programme is at two levels, procedural and administrative matters which
are dealt with by the Clerks-at-the-Table and Functional Heads of Department and that
part of the programme conducted by the peers of the MPs and other critical
stakeholders. In this regard, Speakers and Member of Parliaments from the region with
long standing experience as well as Secretariats from the International Parliamentary
Organisations take part in the induction programmes. The induction programme thus
includes a guided tour of the Parliament building and the issuance of a package of
information material that includes the Constitution, Standing Orders, documentation
on the Parliamentary reforms adopted by Parliament, the Subsistence and Travel
regulations and the Privileges, Immunities and the Members Handbook to all
Members.
The objectives of the induction programmes are:
a) to inform Members of Parliament about the Role and Functions of Parliament as
one of the three arms of the State;
b) to equip Members with basic knowledge of parliamentary practices and
procedures to facilitate their effective participation in the legislative process;
52 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

c) to bring members up-to-date with latest/new developments (e.g. Parliamentary

reforms); and
d) to expose new Members to the services that contribute to Parliament’s effective
discharge of its constitutional mandate.
Induction to Members usually takes place within a fortnight of the elections to
ensure that Members receive the necessary guidance on time and to enable them to
immediately commence their duties with minimum difficulty.
Topics that are covered under procedural matters include:
a) The functions and powers of Parliament contained in the Constitution and
Standing Orders;
b) The Structure and Organisation of Parliament;
c) Practice and Procedure of Parliament;
d) Business of the House;
e) The Legislative Process; and
f) The Committee System.
The Role and functions of Parliament covers issues such as the mandate of
Parliament as stated in the Constitution and Standing Orders and the relationship
between Parliament and the other two arms of the State. The role of Parliament is
explained in the context of the doctrine of separation of powers among the three arms
of the State. Emphasis is placed on the fact that Parliament does not and should not
seek to govern, but to call the Executive to account for the manner in which it executes
public policy and programmes. Governing is the preserve of the Executive.
Members are also exposed to the administrative structure of Parliament, the role
and functions of Presiding Officers, Leaders of Government Business, Leader of the
Opposition and Party Whips. The relationship between backbench and the front bench
is also explained and clarified for the smooth functioning of Parliament.
Emphasis is also placed on explaining how these various offices contribute towards
the smooth functioning of Parliament as well as how and where Members should
channel any issues of concern. The Members are also exposed to the role of party
caucuses in guiding Members on party policy on issues before Parliament.
Under the Business of the House, Members are informed of the two forms of the
business, namely public and private Members’ business. This section is meant to alert
Members to the different types of business that come before Parliament. Most of the
business of Parliament is public business, and thus it is allocated more time during the
sessions of Parliament. Under public business such matters as legislation, ratification of
treaties, protocols and agreements, Ministerial statements, consideration of financial
matters etc are covered. Members are at this stage alerted to the rules of procedure
relating to the types of business. This includes clarifying how the business is brought
before Parliament and the rules of debate relating to each genre of business.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 53

The presentation on the legislative process and policy analysis looks at types of
legislation that can be brought before Parliament, namely public, private and hybrid
Bills. In differentiating the types of Bills, emphasis is placed on how these Bills are
generated and how they are brought before Parliament. For the private Members’ Bills,
Members are advised of the assistance they can get from secretariat of Parliament if the
motion to bring in a private Member’s Bill is adopted. This is done in line with
Parliamentary Reforms which advocated for Parliamentary support of private
Members’ efforts in piloting their Bills in Parliament once the motion is adopted.
The representatives of the International Parliamentary Organisations explain the
role of Parliaments in these fora e.g. SADC-PF, CPA Africa Region, CPA International,
Pan African Parliament and the IPU. The importance of such Parliamentary Fora and
their role in strengthening democratic governance is also explained.
The role of individual Members and Portfolio Committees are also explained. This is
done to ensure that Members are aware of when to bring in amendments to Bills and
how the public can be involved in the legislative process through Portfolio Committees
in line with Parliamentary reforms.
Administrative Matters
The Members are exposed to the various services offered by the departments of
Parliament and how Members can access them.
Information on such services as the vehicle scheme, conditions of service including
salaries and allowances and Members’ benefits is also provided.
The secretariat also takes advantage of the induction programme to arrange for
those Members without passports to obtain these at that time. The Public and
International relations Unit liaises with the respective government departments to
issue Members with the relevant documents. This helps to ensure that members
acquire, with minimal difficulty, all the documents that they may require during their
tenure as Members of Parliament.
The Research Unit and Library Department responsible for information needs of
members respectively, explain the research services available and interviews
individual members to establish their special interests. Access to the internet is also
becoming central to accessing up to date information and for communication purposes,
hence the Information Technology Department also explains the basic training that
Parliament offers to Members to enable them to use the internet to access information.
As part of the reform process the National Assembly of Zambia has established
Parliamentary Constituency Offices (PCOs) in each of the 150 constituencies to serve
the information needs of constituencies and to act as focal points of interaction between
Members and their constituencies. As property of Parliament, PCOs are for public use
regardless of political party affiliation. The Public Reforms Programme Department is
responsible for the administration of the services available to Members. The
department emphasises the non-partisan nature of the offices to ensure that Members
do not turn the offices into extensions of their party offices.
CONCLUSION
54 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

The increasing complexity of the environment within which parliamentarians work,

particularly over the last two decades, has been paralleled by changes both in
parliamentarians’ own expectations and those of the public. These expectations point
to one important feature, the need for induction and training. These two are cardinal in
ensuring that new members settle into the institution as quickly as possible and that
they carry out their various roles in the most efficient and effective manner.”

Mr Vladimir SVINAREV (Russian Federation) presented the following

contribution :
Since 2002, the Council of Federation is a full-time professional institution. The CoF
members are elected by the relevant legislative bodies, while the heads of the Russian
Federation constituent entities are nominated by the executive branch and endorsed by
the legislative assemblies in the respective RF constituent entities.
The new federal law that sets out the procedures governing the formation of the
Upper Chamber will take effect in January 2011. As of next year, none but the members
of the RF regional and municipal legislative (representative) bodies elected by the
citizens in their respective constituencies are eligible to represent their respective
regions in the Council of Federation.
In contrast to the procedures of the State Duma, the Lower Chamber of the RF
Parliament, the rotation of the CoF members is not a one-time event but an ongoing
continual process. Therefore, the CoF Staff has to interact with the new CoF members
on a continuous basis.
The CoF members enjoy an all-around assistance and support rendered by the CoF
Staff right after their induction.
1. Each newly elected (appointed) CoF member is introduced to the CoF and CoF
Staff procedures receiving instructions how to use the voting system installed in the
Upper Chamber sessions hall.
2. The CoF Steering Commission introduces new CoF members to the procedures
applied to set up CoF committees and commissions and explains their functions to
them.
3. The new CoF member meets the CoF Head of Staff for an introductory briefing.
4. The Council of Federation organisational structure and procedures as well as the
functions of the CoF Staff are described in a reference brochure that we have prepared
for CoF members’ information based on the Federal Law "On Status of Member of the
Council of Federation and Status of Deputy of the State Duma in the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation" and the CoF Standing Orders.
All other reference and support information materials are also made available to the
CoF members.
5. We advise the new members on the rules and standards that govern funding of
their professional functions performance and provision of adequate working
environment including social benefits as established by the federal law.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 55

A new CoF member who has no accommodation in Moscow is provided with a

comfortable apartment for the term of office.
The CoF members and their next of kin are entitled to health care services provided
in specialised medical treatment facilities. The senators and their families receive out-
patient, emergency and home health care services, and, if and when required, in-
patient medical services.
A new CoF member is provided with an office located in the Upper House building
complete with office furniture, equipment, means of communication and an official
chauffeur-driven car.
6. The CoF Staff job is to facilitate functions of the CoF members and their assistants
as well who are advised on the specifics of the CoF Staff civil service regulations.
It will be noted that the senators may employ assistants providing services both at
their Upper House offices and in the senators’ respective constituencies. The CoF Staff
compensates costs associated with the services provided by the assistants in the
constituencies. The assistants are provided with training, professional advice, reference
and information materials; participate in the exchange of experience programmes
arranged by the CoF Staff.
Our core function is an all-round facilitation of the senator functions performance,
and no efforts are being spared to streamline this line of our activities.”



Mr Ghulam Hassan GRAN (Afghanistan) presented the following contribution :

ORIENTATION PROGRAM FOR THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE WOLESI
JIRGA (HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF
AFGHANISTAN
1. Introduction
The main purpose for conducting orientation programs is to acquaint newly elected
and re-elected members with their new roles as people’s representatives.
During the program, members will be given orientation about the functions of
Parliament and their roles in processing legislation, conducting oversight, and their
responsibilities as representatives of the people.
Orientation program offers the opportunity to make new members aware of
parliamentary processes and the internal procedures they will adhere to.
In broad terms, orientation programs serve the following:
• Inform Members of Parliament about the Role of Parliament as one of the three
pillars of the State.
56 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

• Provide members with the essential knowledge of parliamentary practices and

procedures. This will facilitate and allow for effective participation in legislative,
oversight and representation processes.
• Orientation programs allow members to become acquainted with recent
developments in parliamentary institutional development. Through sharing
experiences, members are informed of developing trends in parliamentary reforms.
• Orientation programs provide an opportunity for members to be exposed and
informed of the various services that parliaments afford to them to enable effective
discharge of constitutional mandates.
The General Secretariat of the Wolesi Jirga plays a key role in the Orientation of new
and returning members. This includes the planning and actual conduct of the
orientation program.
The Secretariat determines appropriate content and subjects to be discussed during
the orientation program. Information packages relating to the Practices and Procedures
of the House are prepared. members are also supplied with the internal rules of the
Administration of Parliament, including the administrative services availed for their
convenience.
The planning process for the Orientation is particularly important as the General
Secretariat has to ensure that all logistical arrangements are put in place in time for a
successful orientation program. This is important as the orientation program, for new
members particularly is their first engagement with Parliament.
The orientation program is especially useful for the new members, as most of the
members will not be familiar with either the roles and functions of parliament, or the
internal rules and procedures for conducting parliamentary business.
Orientation programs are especially useful in a country like Afghanistan, where
election to the National Assembly is not based on political parties. Members elected to
the National Assembly therefore do not always represent a given party or organized
position but most times their individual viewpoints.
Party discipline which characterizes the conduct of members in parliamentary
systems is not always present in Afghanistan. The Orientation program serves as an
opportunity to equip members with skills on how to put forward their messages in a
manner that is respectful of parliamentary democracy.
Further, Orientation programs are important in that they recognize that members
do not all have the same level of knowledge and education. They provide an
opportunity for those members with limited information about parliamentary
procedures to obtain more information which will serve them better in conducting
their work.
Since the National Assembly of Afghanistan is a young parliament, having only
been re-established five years ago after more than 30 years of conflict, orientation
programs are important in ensuring the growth and development of the capacity of the
members of the institution.
2. Main Imperatives for Orientation programs in Afghanistan
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 57

• Most MP’s of the Wolesi Jirga have low qualifications;

• The absence of political parties does not allow for disciplined messaging and
collective positions, it is therefore important to prepare individual members for their
parliamentary processes as there is no party to prepare its members;
• 30 years of conflict necessitate that democratic values have to be taught to
members;
• There is need to develop from the onset the mindset within members that
Parliament is a body for democratic and peaceful resolution of conflicts. Most members
formerly were involved in the internal conflicts of the country;
• Parliamentary processes are continuously changing and there is a need to
provide members with recent and up to date information on Parliamentary reforms;
• The Orientation program serves as a useful opportunity for members to begin
to interact among themselves and also to familiarize themselves with the General
Secretariat and how the Secretariat functions.
Content of the Orientation Program
16th Term of the National Assembly of Afghanistan 2010
• Methodology of the Constitution;
• The Principle of the Separation of Powers- Checks and Balances;
• Parliamentary Privileges and Immunities (Constitutional);
• Legislation in the Wolesi Jirga (House of Representatives);
• Representation, Development and Relations with Electoral Constituencies;
• Agendas, Urgent Request, Quorum, Discussions for Voting;
• Rules of Procedure;
• The legislative Process of Government Bills;
• International Organizations and Parliamentary Diplomacy;
• Procedure for Official Tours and Visits of the MP’s;
• The Budget Approval Process and Parliamentary Oversight of the State Budget
Process;
• Media Relations, Publications and Public Awareness;
• Introduction to processing of International treaties;
• Registration System, administration, Results and Acts of a session;
• Parliamentary Code of Conduct;
• Parliamentary Structures (Admin Boards, Committees, Political Groups and
Chairs of Committees);
• Security Regime of the National Assembly;
58 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

• Independence and Impartiality of the General Secretariat;

• Information, Communication and Technology Systems;
• 5 Year Parliamentary Strategy of the Wolesi Jirga (House of Representatives);
• Formation of Political Groups;
• Democracy Development and Civil Society;
• Tour to the Premises of the National Assembly;
• Briefing on arrangements at the Joint Session of the National Assembly, in
terms of Article 104 of the Constitution, by the President of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan;
• Evaluation, Conclusion.

The Abovementioned will be conducted by:

• Parliamentary Staff;
• Local Afghan Experts;
• International Experts;
• CSO Representatives.

Expectations and Results

After the completion of the orientation program, members of the Wolesi Jirga will
be acquainted with the following:
• Legal Position as the Member of the House;
• Legal Obligations and Responsibilities as a Representatives of the People;
• Duties and Oversight Authorities according to the Provisions of the
Constitution;
• Duties and Authorities as member of the House during the Legislation
according to the Provisions of the Constitution;
• Duties and Authorities as member of the House during the Budget Process
according to the Provisions of the Constitution;
• Role of the General Secretariat;
• Independency of the General Secretariat;
• Structure of the General Secretariat;
• Security Rules of the House;
• Constitution of Afghanistan;
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 59

• Rules of Procedure of the Wolesi Jirga and all other internal Rules of the House;
• Code of Conduct with Counterpart MP’s, Admin Board and the General
Secretariat; and other clients including the Member of the Executive Body
• Privileges, Obligations and Immunities of a member of the National Assembly;
• Rights and Obligations of Afghanistan According to the International Treaties.

Challenges:
• If the staff of the General Secretariat of the House would like to present a
subject to the MP’s, this could create huge sensitivities and the MP’s consider that as if
the government has asked them to do so, in this case we ask the University Professors
to assist us in such situations in order to ignore the misunderstandings.”



Dr V.K. AGNIHOTRI (India) said that there were two types of MPs in his country:
those who knew nothing and wanted to know nothing, and those who knew too much.
The second category was harder to deal with than the first. There were partial elections
to the Indian Parliament every two years, so new Members to train very often. As well
as an induction programme, specific modules were organised on topics such as
committee work. Some training was open to MPs’ staff.
Mr Heiki SIBUL (Estonia) said that his Parliament dealt with training very much as
in Zambia. He asked about the timing of courses in Zambia.
Mr André GAGNON (Canada) said that surveys of Canadian Members showed
that they were more interested in practical and financial issues, such as office space
and staffing, than in the running of Parliament. Training sessions had been held on
work-life balance, with presentations for spouses of current Members given by spouses
of older Members and Members whose partners had left them due to overwork. At the
beginning of a Parliament, there was general training for Members, with specific
modules held later on issues such as parliamentary procedure, but attendance at these
modules was quite low. He asked about attendance in the Zambian and Afghan
context.
Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked whether there was ever training for
Members of Parliament on the role of international organisations such as the IPU and
UNDP.
Mr Carlos HOFFMANN CONTRERAS (Chile) said that Senators in Chile were
almost all re-elected Senators or former Deputies. In the current Senate, only one
Senator had come from outside Parliament. Training tended to come from political
parties rather than from the Senate administration.
Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, noted that Mr Hoffmann Contreras had worked
for the parliamentary administration in Chile for more than 50 years.
60 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Mr Robert ROGERS (United Kingdom) said that the induction provided by the
House of Commons service following the general election in 2010 had represented a
step change, after a year of reputational damage as a result of an expenses scandal
which had led to the retirement of many more Members than expected. The risk had
been that the administration would be seen by new Members as implicated in the
wrongs of the previous Parliament. Training had been timed to capture Members
during the ‘golden hour’ when first impressions would be formed. In preparation, 200
House staff had been involved in a rehearsal, pretending to be Members of Parliament,
including ‘Mrs Angry MP’, and ‘Mr Disorganised MP’ with small children in tow.
Following the election, one of new Members’ first experiences was to be shown in the
Chamber itself by both experienced parliamentarians and senior parliamentary staff
how to operate effectively in the Chamber. The preparation for and implementation of
the training had been extremely worthwhile, as it had helped to create effective,
determined and independent-minded new Members of Parliament, and had
established the House of Commons service with a strong reputation as effective,
independent and professional.
Mrs Doris Katai Katebe MWINGA (Zambia), responding to the debate, said that
within a month of their election, MPs in Zambia had been given two induction courses,
each lasting three to four days. Training was timed where possible to coincide with
related activity, such as the Budget. Members tended to be more enthusiastic about
training when new, during their first few months. They were not all professional
people, as with Chilean senators. Members from rural constituencies needed strong
cars to enable them to travel between the capital and their constituency, and these were
available on loan. There were programmes connected with international relations: IPU
staff and those from other international organisations came to talk to Members of
Parliament. MPs tended not to read material they were given: it was more effective to
talk to them. Information overload was a real problem. Two of the training
programmes were conducted in the Chamber itself. These were recorded to inform the
preparation of future training, but not shared with Members.
Mr Ghulam Hassan GRAN (Afghanistan) spoke of the challenges facing the
Afghan Parliament. These included the numbers of new and returning Members and
the timing of the training programme. University professors in particular subjects were
invited to take part in the induction of new Members, on subjects including the IPU
and international assemblies. Martin Chungong from the IPU would hopefully attend
the opening ceremony of the Parliament. The level of education of some Afghan MPs
was not advanced.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 61

TURKIC SPEAKING COUNTRIES AND

PARLIAMENTARY DIPLOMACY

Ramil HASANOV
Secretary General of the Parliament Assembly of
Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA)

First of all I would like to thank the President and Joint Secretary of the Association
of the Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP) for the invitation to this important
event and opportunity to address such an honorable audience and also express my
gratitude for my acceptance to members of the ASGP.
With your permission I would like to inform you shortly about the history of
establishment of TURKPA and its activities.
The Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) was
established in November 21, 2008 according to the Agreement signed by the Heads of
Parliaments of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic,
and the Republic of Turkey.
Then, in September 29, 2009 the first plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly
of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) was conducted in Baku, Azerbaijan. TURKPA
Regulations, Statute of Secretariat, Baku Declaration and Statement regarding the
permanent accomodation of the Secretariat in Baku city were adopted at the plenary
session.
TURKPA Chairmanship annually passes from one country to another by means of
rotation in the English alphabetical order and according to this order the current
Chairman is the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the forthcoming session in 2011 the
Chairmanship will pass to Kazakhstan.
The Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries has an intention to
support further development of political dialogue among the countries and create
favorable political conditions for elaboration and implementation of different
initiatives by means of parliamentary diplomacy as a qualitatively new stage of inter-
62 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

parliamentary cooperation in order to maintain regional and global security. One of the
main goals of TURKPA is the establishment of new relations and development of the
existing ones with parliaments and other international organizations of the countries in
the region and all over the world. On this basis I would like to emphasize that our
organization has not been established against the third countries. Our goals include
only strengthening of political and economic security of the countries on the grounds
of refrainment from threat or use of force or economic or any other pressure, growth of
national prosperity by means of full and rational use of natural resources; endeavour to
the further progress in the sphere of parliamentary diplomacy.
3 out of 4 of our Members have a comparatively short history of independence and
young parliaments, but nevertheless, they achieved to integrate into world
parliamentary community to great extent during such a short period and establish
bilateral and multilateral relations with many parliaments and international
parliamentary organizations. So that, all our Members are also members of OSCE PA, 3
TURKPA Members are members of the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS,
Azerbaijan and Turkey are presented in PACE and are members of PABSEC
(Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation), Turkey is a Member
and Azerbaijan is an Associate Member in NATO PA, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Turkey are members of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly. On the other side, the
Republic of Turkey has a comparatively long parliamentary history that provides a
source of good practice for other TURKPA Members.
At TURKPA we are committed to strengthen relations not only among our Member
parliaments, but also between them and other parliaments and international
parliamentary organizations. I should also mention that Turkey is a parliamentary
republic and Kazakhstan is a semi-parliamentary republic that means a more
influential role of the parliaments in these countries.
Anyway, the current trends in politics tend not to leave foreign policy in monopoly
of executive and they steer up the borders between domestic and foreign issues. To this
end parliamentary diplomacy becomes an instrument to connect legislative bodies
with foreign policies. In the present world the financial resources is basic in
determining policies and planning the government’s actions and the parliaments are
those bodies which decide on financial resources that is, the budget for the
governments what gives the legislative body another important leverage to influence
foreign policy. Therefore, there is a real opportunity to transform parliamentary
diplomacy from “another speaker for government” to a “real dialogue among
parliamentarians” considering also that parliamentarians can sometimes do what is
beyond the competency of the diplomats and become an alternative channel in conflict
settlements.
Especially in Turkic speaking countries besides many transnational issues
concerning all these countries such as energy and logistics projects, many issues of
more global importance such as counter-terrorism activities and security issues depend
on decisions of the parliaments that present an effective platform for parliamentary
diplomacy.
In this context TURKPA pays special attention to cooperation with the ASGP as the
international parliamentary organization having great experience and being a high-
level platform for discussion of regional and global concerns by parliamentarians from
different countries.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 63

Let me take this opportunity to express sincere thanks on behalf of TURKPA

management for the brilliant organization of this event and for having a chance to
address the meeting. I would like to thank everybody who participated in the
organization of this meeting and wish success to all participants.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 65

CUT MOTIONS - MOTIONS TO REDUCE THE

AMOUNT OF MONEY DEMANDED BY A
GOVERNMENT IN A BUDGET

S. BAL SHEKAR
Additional Secretary of the Lok Sabha (India)

“Constitutional right is a superior right and it overrides practices. Right to move Cut
Motions is an important right of the members of the House (Lok Sabha) provided in the
Constitution which cannot be curtailed.”- Smt. Meira Kumar, Speaker, Lok Sabha

A path breaking procedural development that took place during the Budget Session
of the Lok Sabha this year has given a new dimension to the concept of Cut Motions.
The momentous ruling of the Speaker upheld the rights of the member to move cut
motions, setting aside certain longstanding practices and conventions in this regard.

Article 113(2) of the Constitution of India lays down that the estimates of
expenditure not charged on the Consolidated Fund of India are submitted in the form
of Demands for Grants to the Lok Sabha, which has the power to assent, or to refuse to
assent, to any ‘demand’, or to assent to any ‘demand’ subject to a reduction of the
amount specified therein. During discussions on demands for grants, a motion can be
moved to reduce the amount of a demand. Such a motion is called a ‘Cut Motion’. It is
only a form of initiating discussion on the demand, so that the attention of the House is
drawn to the matter specified therein. It is also a procedural tool to ventilate grievances
or to suggest economies. Cut motions are given by members of the Opposition only
and the members of the Government do not generally give such notices as it may
amount to a vote of censure, or indirectly ‘no-confidence’, in the Council of Ministers.
If cut motions go through, it would amount to an expression of no confidence and the
Government will have to resign. Rules 209, 210, 211 and 212 of the Rules of Procedure
66 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha and Direction 43 of the Directions by the
Speaker, Lok Sabha lay down in detail the formalities relating to raising of Cut Motions
in the House.

Cut Motions can be classified into three categories viz., Disapproval of Policy Cut;
Economy Cut; and Token Cut.

Disapproval of Policy Cut: Where the object of a motion is to disapprove the policy
underlying a demand, its form is “That the amount of the demand be reduced to Re.
1”. The member giving notice of such a Cut Motion has to indicate in precise terms the
particulars of the policy, which he proposes to discuss. Discussion is confined to the
specific point or points mentioned in the notice and it is open to the member to
advocate an alternative policy.

Economy Cut: Where the object of the motion is to effect an economy in the
expenditure, the form of the motion is “that the amount of the demand be reduced by a
specified amount”. The amount suggested for reduction is either a lump sum reduction
in the demand or omission or reduction of an item in the demand. The notice has to
indicate briefly and precisely the particular matter on which discussion is sought to be
raised and speeches are confined to the points as to how the economy can be affected.

Token Cut: Where the object of the motion is to ventilate a specific grievance within
the sphere of the responsibility of the Government of India, the form is “That the
amount of the demand be reduced by Rs. 100”. Discussion on such a Cut Motion is
confined to the particular grievance specified in the motion.

It is necessary that a Cut Motion, irrespective of its nature or type, should mention
briefly and precisely the objectives. In fact, the practice of indicating briefly and
precisely the particulars of the policy, the specific matter or grievance, as the case may
be, that the member wants to discuss on his cut motion—whether disapproval of
policy cut or economy cut or token cut—was started in 1925 during the Budget Session.

Notice period for tabling Cut Motions

The period of notice of a cut motion is one day previous to the day on which the
demand to which it relates is under consideration, but the Speaker is empowered to
waive an objection on the score of insufficient notice (vide Rule 212 of Rules of
Procedure and Conduct of the Business in Lok Sabha). The Rules Committee of the
Fourth Lok Sabha considered the question of inadequacy of the period of notice for
tabling of Cut Motions. The Committee decided that members might be requested to
table such notices at least two days before the day they are to be taken up in the House.
Before the commencement of Session, members are, therefore, requested through
Bulletin to table the notice of Cut Motions at least two days before the day the relevant
item to which they relate is to be taken up in the House, but in any case not later than
15.15 hrs. on the previous day.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 67

The notices of cut motions tabled up to 15.15 hours on a day are printed and
circulated. The notices tabled after 15.15 hours are deemed to have been tabled on the
next working day. These notices are printed and circulated on the next working day if
the demands for grants to which they relate have not already been disposed of in the
House.

Admissibility of Cut Motions

In order that notice of motion for reduction of the amount of demand may be
admissible, it shall satisfy some specifically laid down conditions, namely:
• It shall relate to one demand only;
• It shall be clearly expressed and should not contain arguments, inferences,
ironical expressions, imputations, epithets and defamatory statements;
• It shall be confined to one specific matter which should be stated in precise
terms;
• It shall not reflect on the character or conduct of any person whose conduct can
only be challenged on a substantive motion;
• It shall not make suggestions for the amendment or repeal of existing laws;
• It shall not relate to a State subject or to matters which are not primarily the
concern of the Government of India;
• It shall not relate to expenditure ‘Charged’ on the Consolidated Fund of India;
• It shall not relate to a matter which is under adjudication by a court of law
having jurisdiction in any part of India;
• It shall not raise a question of privilege;
• It shall not revive discussion on a matter which has been discussed in the same
session and on which decision has been taken;
• It shall not anticipate a matter which has been previously appointed for
consideration in the same session;
• It shall not ordinarily seek to raise discussion on a matter pending before any
statutory tribunal or statutory authority performing any judicial or quasi-judicial
functions or any commission or court of enquiry appointed to enquire into, or
investigate any matter. However, the Speaker may in his discretion allow such matter
being raised in the House as is concerned with the procedure or stage of enquiry, if the
Speaker is satisfied that it is not likely to prejudice the consideration of such matter by
the statutory tribunal, statutory authority, commission or court of enquiry; and
• It shall not relate to a trivial matter.

Ultimately it is the Speaker who decides whether a Cut Motion is or is not

admissible and may disallow any Cut Motion when in his opinion it is an abuse of the
right of moving Cut Motions or is calculated to obstruct or prejudicially affect the
procedure of the House, or is in contravention of the Rules of Procedure of the House
(Rule 211).

It is a well-established Parliamentary convention that cut motions seeking to discuss

the action of the Speaker or relating to Speaker’s Department or matters under the
68 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

control of Speaker are not allowed. Likewise, cut motions relating to the Office of the
Vice-President (who is also ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha) are not admissible. At
the same time, Cut motions relating to matters under consideration of a Parliamentary
Committee, seeking to discuss a matter affecting relations with a friendly foreign
country or details of internal administration of an autonomous body and omission of a
whole grant are out of order. It has, however, been held that Cut Motions pertaining to
the working of an autonomous body are admitted if they raise matters of public
importance. Cut motions are not admissible if they ventilate personal grievances or if
they cast aspersions on individual Government officials.

Once admitted, the printed Lists of Cut Motions to the various Demands for Grants
are circulated to all members and the Minister concerned, generally two days in
advance of the date on which the Demands for Grants in respect of the Ministry are to
be taken up in the House for discussion.

Procedure regarding moving of Cut Motions

At the commencement of the discussion on the Demands for Grants in respect of a
particular Ministry, members are asked by the Speaker to hand over at the Table
within fifteen minutes, slips indicating the serial numbers of their Cut Motions that
they would like to move. The Cut Motions thus indicated by the members are only
treated as moved. These motions can neither be moved at a later stage, nor if there is
no time for proper discussion and voting and also not by proxy.

All the Cut Motions moved by members are first disposed of by putting them to the
vote of the House before the Demands for Grants are put to the vote of the House.
Generally, all the Cut Motions are negatived. As already mentioned above, a Cut
Motion, if passed, is tantamount to censuring or indirectly expressing ‘no-confidence’
in the Council of Ministers. Also that the members of the ruling party do not by
convention give notice of, or move Cut Motions to the Demands for Grants but they
can take part in the discussion and may in their speeches criticise or question the policy
of the Government or the wisdom of any expenditure or financial prospect. However,
there have been occasions when ruling party members tabled notices of cut motions
but did not move them.

Though Cut Motions were adopted by the erstwhile Legislatures on several

occasions between 1922 and 1939, there has been no such instance in the post
independence era.

The Fifteenth Lok Sabha: Observation from the Chair regarding moving of Cut
motions in respect of Demands for Grants whether discussed or guillotined.

The Parliament of India, while conducting the business, has shown considerable
flexibility regarding procedural issues. The Speaker being the centre point as the
Presiding Officer tries to ensure that all sections of the House are heard. Whenever
situation demands or a clarification is sought on a Point of Order, he/she is required to
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 69

interpret the rules, study past precedents and decisions, give directions and pronounce
rulings. And he/she does so after taking into consideration the provisions of the
Constitution, the established parliamentary practices, customs, conventions and
precedent. His/her observations in the form of rulings reflect the sense of the House
prevailing at that point of time, constitute precedents and become the guiding
principles for successive Houses.
In this context, it would be worth mentioning the historical decision that raised and
established a valid point of constitutional and parliamentary law, for years to come. It
so happened, on 27 April 2010, before the submission of the outstanding Demands for
Grants relating to the Ministries and Departments to the vote of the House, one of the
senior members raised an important issue relating to the right of members of the
House in moving cut motions on the Demands for Grants which are guillotined.
Referring to article 113 of the Constitution of India, he stated that since the
Constitution vests in the House of the People the power to assent to the demand
subject to reduction of the amount specified in that demand, the members have the
right to move cut motions on any demand submitted to the House for its approval.

The practice followed so far in this regard in the House had been that the cut
motions in respect of the Demands for Grants which were to be guillotined were not
circulated and thus not allowed to be moved. However, the right of a member to move
a cut motion flows from the power vested in the Lok Sabha under article 113 of the
Constitution. Evidently, this article of the Constitution or any of the Rules of Procedure
and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha does not make any distinction between the
demands which are discussed in the House and those which are guillotined. Therefore,
while considering the issue of cut motions in respect of the Demands for Grants which
are guillotined, after carefully examining the rules as well as the practices that have
been followed all these years and the constitutional provision which vests the power in
the House of the People to reduce any demand submitted to it, it was concluded in the
Budget Session of the Fifteenth Lok Sabha that a constitutional right has precedence,
and a practice cannot override a constitutional provision. The Speaker upheld the right
of the members recognizing that the right to move cut motions is a crucial right, which
cannot be denied and allowed the cut motions to be moved. For the first time in annuls
of Indian Parliamentary history, Cut Motions on the Demands for Grants, which were
to be guillotined, were treated as moved and negatived - never once did a member
raise this issue in the House. After disposal of cut motions, all the Outstanding
Demands for Grants were submitted to the vote of the House and voted in full.

Conclusion
An effective mechanism of scrutiny operated by dedicated and vigilant members
through their more active participation in various parliamentary debates and
discussions is essential for ensuring greater accountability to the Legislature. We, in
India, have formulated rules and procedures and developed conventions and
traditions to govern the proper functioning of the Parliament. Over the last more than
six decades, many innovations have been made in the rules, several precedents
evolved, a number of healthy conventions established and quite a few practices,
peculiar to our own system, developed. Yet, the need to strengthen various devices of
parliamentary scrutiny to give greater meaning to the concept of accountability is a
70 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

continuing one. Parliament has been in the process of change. Procedure, therefore,
cannot be static; it evolves itself.”
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 71

INDEPENDENT BUDGET PROCESSES OF

PARLIAMENT FOR IMPROVED ACCOUNTABILITY
AND SCRUTINY OF PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET

Zingile DINGANI
Secretary of Parliament (South Africa)

1. Introduction
Since the democratic dispensation in South Africa, government have developed
progressive laws that embrace democratic values. These include the Constitution (Act
no. 108 of 1996), which entrenches democratic rights and provides a core foundation
for the functionality of the South African government. Among other things, the
Constitution sets out structures of government, assigns powers and authority of
government and spells out the citizens’ rights. Underpinned in the Constitution are the
delegation of powers and authority, and the doctrine of the separation of powers
among the three spheres of government, namely, Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.
These are enhanced by the checks and balances to ensure that no sphere of government
abuses its powers. The Constitution further entrenches a culture of accountability in
government as well as a degree of transparency in government budgeting and financial
management. In addition, national legislative framework has been enhanced to
translate these important principles into the budget process. The Public Finance
Management Act (PFMA) of 1999 serves as a legislative cornerstone of the
management of public funds and sets stringent transparency requirements including
regular reporting and the assignment of accountability.

In enforcing its oversight responsibility and further clarifying the separation of

powers, Parliament recently introduced new budget reforms. Two Acts of Parliament
were enacted including the Financial Management of Parliament Act (FMPA). Among
the objectives of this Act is to provide for parliamentary oversight of Parliament’s
72 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

budget and expenditure through an appropriate oversight mechanism of parliament.

It also spells out responsibilities of different role players in the budget process and the
relationship with other state institutions, including National Treasury and the Auditor-
General.

2. Parliamentary Budget Process

The parliamentary budget process is cyclical, it starts with the planning process and
ends with the reporting process. It links the parliamentary programme with the budget
cycle. The parliamentary budget process aligns strategic planning, monitoring and
reporting with budget planning, monitoring and reporting. Parliament is required to
formulate five-year strategic plans and annual performance plans, allocate resources to
implement those plans and monitor and report on the results. In all these phases,
different role players are assigned responsibilities and the FMPA guides them on the
execution of such responsibilities. The planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting
cycle describes the relationship between these processes and emphasises the
accountability lines of the budget process. The Act further encourages transparency
during the process and consultation with the Minister of Finance in some aspects of
budgeting is required. Section 17 of the FMPA requires that the Executive Authority
must consult the Minister of Finance in determining the processes of submitting
Parliament’s budgets to the National Treasury before these budgets are submitted to
the National Treasury.

Strategic and Operation plan

Strategic planning assists institutions in establishing longer term priorities. It assists
in defining an organisation’s strategy and direction, and in making decisions about the
allocation of resources. In contrast, the operational plan defines short-term methods of
achieving strategic objectives. The strategic plan indicates outputs to be produced and
specifies performance indicators, while the operational plan sets performance targets.

The FMPA requires the Accounting Officer to prepare and present to the Executive
Authority a draft strategic plan of Parliament’s administration. This is a long-term plan
of five years which should include Parliament’s priorities for the period. It should also
include performance measurement information per programme, which is useful in
assessing the performance of Parliament. The Accounting Officer is further required to
prepare a three year-rolling performance plan, which should indicate any changes
from the strategic plan. This plan provides performance information that assists in
measuring both programme and institutional performance at the end of the cycle. Both
strategic plan and annual performance plan are required to be tabled in Parliament by
the Executive Authority for approval.

Annual Budget
A budget is a document that, once approved by the legislature authorises
government institutions to raise revenue, incur debts and effect expenditures in order
to achieve certain goals. The budget should be responsive to policy direction, focus on
the achievement of results and should promote openness, transparency and
accountability. In line with these practices, the budget of Parliament is allocated to
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 73

finance policy priorities as identified in both strategic and annual performance plans.
The Act requires that a three-year rolling budget be prepared by the Accounting
Officer and presented to the Executive Authority within ten months prior to the start of
the financial year. In promoting transparency, such budget should disclose the revenue
sources of Parliament and specify amounts allocated to Members of Parliament and
political parties. Allocations to different divisions within the budget are required to be
substantiated with detailed explanations and other information.

The Executive Authority is responsible for overseeing the preparation of

Parliament’s strategic plan, annual performance plan and budget. Prior submission of
Parliament’s budget to the National Treasury, the Executive Authority must first
consult the Minister of Finance in determining the process of submitting such budgets.
The budget of Parliament and any revision to the budget are approved by Parliament
for each financial year.

Budget Implementation and In-Year Monitoring

The Accounting Officer is responsible for the implementation of Parliament’s
budget. Parliamentary funds are spent in accordance with the approved budget and
guidelines are provided in FMPA in dealing with instances where legislation is
overridden during the budget implementation. However, the FMPA is flexible in
dealing with Executive directives that have financial implications. It requires
interactive consultation between the Executive Authority and Accounting Officer in
dealing with any directives that might result in unauthorised expenditure.

The Act further provides for in-year reporting, including monthly financial
statements, quarterly performance reports and mid-year budget and performance
assessment. These provide useful information that highlights red flags in budget
implementation and performance of parliamentary programmes. Both annual
performance plans and annual budgets are used as a basis to measure the performance
of Parliament. These reports are submitted to the Oversight Mechanism which is
responsible for overseeing Parliament’s expenditure. They assist oversight mechanism
in ensuring that Parliament does not deviate from its sets goals. Any deviation from
the set standards and budgets is detected through these reports and corrective
measures can be promptly recommended to remedy the situation.

Annual Reporting
Annual reporting is a process of accounting for the achievement of set objectives as
outlined in the plans. It also accounts for the utilisation of funds to achieve such
objectives and subjects both programme and budget performance of an institution to
public scrutiny. The parliamentary budget process is based on these core values. The
FMPA requires that each financial year, the Accounting Officer must prepare an
annual report accounting on the performance of Parliament and on the decisions taken
during the year. Such a report is required to be based on the annual performance plan
and should provide a detailed account on the utilisation of funds allocated to
Parliament. In ensuring integrity of financial statements, the annual financial
statements are audited by the Auditor-General (AG). The AG’s report is included in
74 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

the annual reports, which are accessible to the public. The annual reports are submitted
to the Executive Authority, after which the report should be tabled in Parliament
within five months after the end of each financial year.

3. Transparency in Budget Processes

Transparency means that all the country’s people and stakeholders can access
information on how much has been allocated to different types of spending, what
revenues are collected, and how international donor assistance and other public funds
are used. Transparency is an important step towards holding governments
accountable for how they use public funds. Good governance dictates that
government operations and decisions should be made openly, and with the active
participation of the people influenced by them. Transparent governments account
openly to citizens about the achievement of goals and usage of public funds to achieve
such goals. Restricting access to information hinders the ability of the public,
journalists, academics and civil society to hold officials accountable and creates
opportunities for government to hinder unpopular, wasteful and corrupt spending.
Lack of information also hinders the ability of other government bodies such Supreme
Audit Institutions to do their jobs effectively.

In South Africa, the principle of transparency in public spending is embodied in the

country’s Constitution. The country’s Constitution is founded on the values of
accountability, responsiveness and transparency. Section 195 (g) of the Constitution
requires that transparency must be fostered in public administration by providing the
public with timely, accessible and accurate information. Legislation has been enacted
to ensure that transparency is the nerve centre of the South African government.
Budget reform measures have brought vats improvement in the budget information
available for public scrutiny. In terms of the study conducted by the International
Budget Partnership, South Africa is among the most transparent countries in the
world. The most recent legislative reforms, such as FMPA that require Parliament to be
more transparent and accountable on its budget further strengthen the country’s
transparency status. The FMPA requires that a number of plans be developed and
made public for public scrutiny on how Parliament intends utilising public funds The
Act requires Parliament to prepare strategic plans, annual performance plan and
annual budgets. These plans include detailed and important information that clearly
spells out the programmes and direction of Parliament and its budget priorities. They
sufficiently provide the public, civil society and other government bodies with useful
information for the thorough scrutiny of Parliament’s actions and budgets.

In practically implementing the principle of accountability, the Act requires that a

number of reports be produced by Parliament to account on the expenditure of its
budget. These include monthly financial statements, quarterly performance reports,
mid-year budget, performance assessment and annual reports. Strict guidelines and
close monitoring of both financial management and institutional programme
performance are provided in the Act. Both quarterly performance reports, mid-year
performance assessment and annual reports afford authorities an opportunity to
evaluate institutional performance and provide remedial action where necessary. The
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 75

availability of this information to the public further subjects Parliament to public

scrutiny, whereby the public can assess whether it has delivered on its objectives as
outlined in its performance plans. As stipulated in section 55 of the Act “an annual
report promotes accountability for decisions made during the year, and it must be
based on the annual performance plan”. As such, the annual report contains an
assessment of performance of Parliament against the objectives and outcomes
identified in the annual performance plan.

The Constitution not only dictates that government institutions provide the public
with information, but also requires that such information should be accurate and
credible. It also guarantees the independence of the Auditor-General (AG). It is within
this Constitutional spirit that annual financial statements of Parliament are subject to
be audited by the AG. The AG provides its audit opinion on the accuracy and
credibility of financial statements, and his report is incorporated into the annual report
which is accessible to the public in terms of Section 60 of the Act.

4. Difference Between the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Financial
Management of Parliament Act (FMPA)
Section 216 of the Constitution requires that national legislation must establish a
national treasury and prescribe measures to ensure both transparency and expenditure
control in each sphere of government. National Treasury is further mandated to
enforce compliance of the spheres of government with the prescribed measures. In line
with this constitutional provision, the Public Finance Management was enacted in 1999
to establish the National Treasury as well as to regulate financial management in the
public sector. This Act seeks to ensure good governance in the public sector by
providing legislative guidelines that enforce principles of accountability, good financial
management as well as principles that counter corruption and waste in the use of
public funds.

In line with the separation of powers, Parliament identified a need to establish its
own financial management arrangements rather than be accountable to National
Treasury. The FMPA was enacted in 2009 to regulate the budget process and manage
the Parliamentary budget. This Act empowers Presiding Officers to determine their
own process for submitting Parliament’s budget. The Act requires that Parliament
consults with the Minister of Finance during this process. In contrast to government
departments, Parliament is not required to consult the Minister when shifting funds
from one programme to the other. Parliament also has powers to manage self-
regulated revenue and does not surrender unspent funds to National Treasury.

The difference between the PFMA and the FMPA is that while the PFMA regulates
government departments and institutions, the FMPA regulates Parliamentary Budget.
The powers to coordinate and monitor funds allocated to government departments
and public institutions rest with National Treasury, while the Executive Authority
(Presiding Officers) are responsible for monitoring of the Parliamentary budget. The
similarity between these two pieces of legislation is that both of these legislative
76 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

instruments empower Parliament to oversee budgets and open public transactions for
public scrutiny.

5. Oversight structure of Parliamentary Budget and Financial Management

Processes
In moving towards good governance, the Act establishes a number of bodies and
structures that assist Parliament in the effective and efficient implementation of
budgets. These are assigned different responsibilities ranging from oversight to
provision of advice to the Accounting Officer. These include Oversight Mechanism,
Audit Committee and Internal Audit Unit among others. The Auditor-General also
plays an important role in ensuring that good financial management practices are in
place.

Oversight Mechanism
Section 55(2)(b)(ii) of the Constitution requires the National Assembly to provide for
mechanisms to maintain oversight of any organ of State. Basic values and principles
governing public administration requires accountability. In line with these
constitutional requirements, the FMPA establishes an oversight mechanism of
Parliament. Chief among the responsibilities of this oversight mechanism is to
maintain oversight of the financial management of Parliament. Among other things, it
considers the annual reports of Parliament. The Act requires the composition of the
oversight mechanism to be in accordance with the Joint Rules of Parliament. This
simply means that the oversight mechanism is composed of Members of Parliament
from both Houses. However, the membership of the Executive Authority, the Deputy
Speaker of the National Assembly and the permanent Deputy Chairperson of the
National Council of Provinces to the oversight mechanism is not permissible. They
may only participate in the deliberations at the request of the oversight mechanism.

The oversight mechanism assumes similar responsibilities that the Committees on

Appropriations and Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has in
overseeing the budgets of the Executive. It plays an important role during the in-year
budget monitoring and considers annual reports of Parliament. Section 54 of the Act
requires the Executive Authority to table monthly, quarterly and mid-year reports in
Parliament within the prescribed period, after which they are referred to the Oversight
Mechanism. These reports serve as early warning systems for the oversight mechanism
to detect the challenges in parliamentary spending and implementation of its
programmes. Section 60 further requires annual reports to be referred to the oversight
mechanism for consideration. These reports include both programme and financial
performance. This reporting phase facilitates for the annual assessment of Parliament’s
performance in relation to its annual performance and budget plans. It provides the
oversight mechanism with an opportunity to holistically evaluate the use of funds and
follow up on the spending deficiencies raised by the AG. The Oversight mechanism
has the powers of parliamentary committees and is empowered to call the Accounting
Officer or any other official of Parliament to appear before it.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 77

Other countries that have established the oversight bodies of Parliament include
Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Malawi. In Canada, the Board of Internal
Economy was established by the Parliament of Canada Act of 1985, the Administration
of the House of Commons is established through the House of Commons
Administration Act of 1978 while in both New Zealand and Malawi the Parliamentary
Service Commission is established through an Act of Parliament. The difference
between the South African Parliament’s oversight mechanisms and the above
mentioned countries is that:

• The oversight mechanism of the South African Parliament comprises of

Members from both House while it appears that oversight mechanisms are comprised
of Members from one House in other countries.
• The membership of Presiding Officers to the oversight mechanism is denied in
the South African Parliament while all oversight bodies of Parliament are chaired by
the Speaker of Parliament in these countries.

Audit Committee
The Audit Committee is an integral element of public accountability and good
governance. It plays a key role with respect to the integrity of the entity’s financial
information, its system of internal controls, and the legal and ethical conduct of
management and employees. An audit committee’s responsibility will vary depending
upon the entity’s complexity, size, and requirements. Typical audit committee
responsibilities include approving the overall audit scope, recommending the
appointment of the external auditor, overseeing the entity’s financial statement and
internal controls, helping to ensure that the audit is conducted in a cost-effective
manner, and risk management oversight. An audit committee must have three
important qualities in order to fulfil its duties, namely independence, communication,
and accountability. Audit Committee are generally tasked by the boards or equivalent
bodies to conduct internal oversight of the institutions systems, policies and processes.

In line with corporate governance framework, section 47 of the FMPA establishes an

Audit Committee. In maintaining its independence, this Committee is appointed by the
Executive Authority with the majority of its members coming from external bodies. As
a general practice, most Audit Committees are chaired by external persons to increase
the levels of independence. The Act is however not explicit in this regard and no
provision of such nature is enacted. It however, requires members of the Committee to
declare any financial interest on any matter before the Committee and to withdraw
from the proceedings if necessary. The Audit Committee has the following
responsibility in ensuring good governance practices within Parliament:

• Establishment of an audit charter: this sets up its operating procedures, guides

audit approach and set rules for relationship with Internal Audit Unit and the
Accounting Officer.
• Carry investigations into Parliament’s financial and risk management.
78 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

• Report on effectiveness of internal control, quality of financial management and

quality of financial statements.

The Audit Committee is an important tire in the financial management of

Parliament in that, it raises early warning on the effectiveness and adequacy of
financial controls. This is done through the assistance of the Internal Audit Unit. If
financial controls are proven to be inadequate or ineffective, authorities within
Parliament are alerted on time to strengthen such controls in order to avoid any
exploitation that might result in the loss of public funds.

Internal Audit Unit

Internal Auditors are guided by both the Standards for the Professional Practice of
Internal Auditors and the country’s legislation in conducting their work. The general
purpose of internal auditing is to assist in improving controls and providing feedback
on business operations with the objective of assisting members of the organisation to
effectively discharge their responsibilities. According to the Standards for the
Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, internal auditors must remain as
independent and objective as possible to perform their job correctly. The duties
performed by an internal auditor include evaluating the systems of internal control
and assessing the reliability of financial information.

Section 7 (c) of the FMPA requires the Accounting Officer to ensure that Parliament
maintains effective, efficient and transparent systems of financial management, risk
management, internal control and internal audit. In further recognising the value of
internal auditing for improved governance, Section 50 of the Act empowers the
Accounting Officer to establish Parliament’s Internal Audit Unit. Among its functions,
the Unit must prepare for the approval of the Audit Committee:

• Operating procedure to guide its relationship with the administration of

Parliament.
• A three-year risk based audit plan
• Internal Audit programme for each year.

The reports of the Internal Audit Unit are important as they highlight the
weaknesses in internal controls, indicators of financial mismanagement and non-
compliance with legislation, regulations and policies. These proactively assist
management to take corrective measures in improving financial management and the
credibility of financial information.

Auditor-General
The Auditor-General (AG) is the supreme audit institution of the Country. The AG
draws its mandate from Section 188 of the Constitution and the Public Audit Act of
2004. The main mandate of the AG is to audit and report on the accounts, financial
statements and financial management of government institutions and agencies. These
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 79

include both national and provincial legislatures. In line with this Constitutional
provision, section 58 of the Act provides for the auditing of the annual financial
statements by the AG. The AG’s independence is guaranteed by the Constitution, and
it provides an independent opinion of the annual financial statements of Parliament.
The AG’s report is incorporated into the annual reports and tabled to Parliament for
consideration.

The AG’s report is central in overseeing the financial management of Parliament. In

the same way in which AG’s reports assist SCOPA in conducting oversight over public
funds, the AG’s report on financial statements of Parliament is refereed to the oversight
mechanism to follow up on any audit queries. It assists in providing substantive
evidence on the management of parliamentary funds.

6. Conclusion
The Parliamentary budget process embraces all the constitutional values and
practice that promote good governance. It is established in a core legislative framework
that provides clear guidelines during the planning, implementation and reporting of
budgets. The principles of transparency and accountability are embodied in this
process and necessary structures are put in place to oversee the budget. The alignment
of programme performance to budget performance and proper reporting frameworks
allow for thorough scrutiny of budgets. Moreover, the clear separation of powers
between the Executive and the Legislature facilitates clear accountability lines and
oversight over the Parliamentary budget.

Sources
Andy Norton & Diane Elson (2002), What’s behind the budget? politics, rights and
accountability in the budget process. June, 2002
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No. 108 of 1996
Financial Management of Parliament Act, No.10 of 2009
Marshall Hoffman & Delaine McCullough (undated), 80 percent of the governments
don’t account for spending. Article downloaded at www.openudgetindex.org
National Treasury (2007), Framework for managing programme performance
information. May, 2007
Public Finance Management Act, No. 01 of 1999”



Mr Austin ZVOMA (Zimbabwe) asked about another recent development in the

South African Parliament, the establishment of a Budget Office. He asked if an
independent body evaluated Parliament’s budgetary requirements, and whether
Parliament’s accounting officer could be brought before the Public Accounts
Committee where poor financial management or maladministration was suspected.
80 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Dr Hafnaoui AMRANI, President, asked if the Auditor General audited other

organs of the state as well as the Parliament, and also for further information about the
annual report described by Mr Dingani.
Mr Emmanuel ANYIMADU (Ghana) asked for more information about the
relationship between the accounting officer and the Treasury of Parliament.
Mr Abdelhamid Badis BELKAS (Algeria) asked how the requirement for
transparency in public spending was put into practice and enforced.
Mr Zingile DINGANI said that the establishment of the Budget Office, whose role
was to analyse the State Budget and related documents, was a separate matter. There
was no external body that determined the budgetary requirements of Parliament – this
would not be constitutionally appropriate. Parliament’s spending was audited yearly
by the Auditor General: Parliament needed to be run to the same standards as other
public authorities. The accounting officer did not appear before the Public Accounts
Committee, but reported to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee. Where the
auditor raised difficult issues, Parliament responded to those issues through action
plans, but Parliament had received unqualified audit opinions during the past four
years. The relationship between the accounting officer and the Treasury of Parliament
was regulated under the Act he had described. Financial information was published
monthly.
Mr Manuel Alba NAVARRO (Spain) said that national Parliaments’ control over
national budgets was less complete than it had once been. The financial crisis had
shown that some recent budgets had been based on figures that were not entirely real.
The international markets also had a major input now into determining budgetary
considerations, despite not being accountable to public opinion.
Mr Zingile DINGANI referred to the Financial and Fiscal Commission which
considered the State’s overall borrowing requirement in the context of a fiscal plan and
made this information available to Parliament. The impact of the recession had been
less severe in South Africa than in many other countries. On a different topic, he
invited colleagues to participate in the World e-Parliament conference and Africa
Parliament Knowledge Network meeting which were taking place in Midrand, South
Africa, later that month.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 81

THE REALIZATION OF ‘A MODEL PARLIAMENT

COMMUNICATING WITH ITS CITIZENS’

KWON Oh Eul
Secretary General of the National Assembly (Republic of Korea)

I. Introduction
I am KWON Oh Eul, Secretary General of the Korean National Assembly. I took
office in June this year. My special appreciation goes to President Amrani for allowing
me to present my first communication at this ASGP session in front of the delegates
from around the world.
As you know well, the state used to have a hierarchical and vertical relationship
with its people rather than a trust-based horizontal one, before the birth of
parliamentary democracy.
With a representative parliamentary system emerging and parliamentary
democracy becoming more universal, public trust towards parliament has been viewed
as an important component in establishing a democratic political system.
Looking back at the history of the Republic of Korea, a modern form of
parliamentary system was introduced right after its Liberation from colonial rule.
However, going through a period of military regime after the chaotic experience of
founding a nation, Korea remained in the grip of authoritarianism, under which the
state was an absolute power to be obeyed.
However, the Korean people with their unwavering desire for democracy put an
end to the military authoritarianism, followed by an unprecedented achievement of
modernization and industrialization. The Korean people increasingly demanded that
their parliament, the National Assembly, act as a genuine channel of public will and
aspirations.
Far from fulfilling people’s wishes, elected representatives ran the National
Assembly based on partisan interests, failing to earn trust from citizens.
82 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

‘Trust crisis in Parliamentary Politics’ or ‘Communication between Parliament and

the People’ are not limited only to Korean politics, but facing all the parliaments
around the world, despite differences in degree.
Since taking office as Secretary General, I have given precedence to restoring public
trust in parliament whose ownership belongs to citizens, while I pay keen attention to
the reality of ‘trust crisis’ in parliamentary politics among citizens.
In order for the Korean Parliament to win hearts and minds of citizens, I believe that
priority should be given to making the Secretariat a well-functioning bridge between
citizens and lawmakers who devise policies reflecting people’s wishes, not to mention
having professional capacity.
To this end, I have asked staffers at the Secretariat not just to build on their
expertise, but to act as a channel of communication through which public will is well
embodied in legislative activities.
I have always emphasized that Secretariat staffers should work hard and diligently
behind the scenes to be loved and respected by the general public, irrespective of
legislators who receive much of the spotlight and public attention.
To achieve this goal, I believe that the National Assembly needs to “be with the
people on the very scene of their lives,” while being “open to the public” and
“communicative with the people through a two-way exchange of legislative
information and people’s opinions.”
My communication today deals firstly with legislative support through the
collection of people’s opinions, secondly with the roles of ‘the National Assembly
Visitor Center’ and ‘the National Assembly Info Center,’ and finally with a
communicative National Assembly through the establishment of an easier and more
convenient National Assembly Information System.

II. Case 1: Legislative Support through the collection of people’s opinions

First of all, let me introduce you to an example of legislative support based upon the
direct collection of people’s opinions on the ground.
As part of its legislative support roles, the National Assembly Secretariat has
provided lawmakers with various types of services by, for example, turning their
policy ideas into specific bills upon request and by offering them research findings or
analysis results on a range of social issues.
From my own experiences as a three-term lawmaker before, however, I realized that
there was a limit to resolving problems that arise from people’s lives when resorting
only to the existing legislative support system with assistance given to individual
legislators upon their request.
In an effort to address this challenge, I institutionalized the following two measures
in legislative support.
First, I initiated “the Legislative Support Meeting on Current Issues,” which is held
in a city or a region in need of revising plenty of laws and regulations
comprehensively. The meeting invites the constituency’s lawmaker, local public
officials of the municipality, local media outlets, experts, and local civic groups with a
view to listening to the voices of people on the ground and incorporating the
discussion results into legislative processes.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 83

Last August, the National Assembly held its first such meeting to find ways to
promote and develop the city of Pyeongtaek, a city with natural conditions to become
an excellent harbor in the vicinity of China, into a central hub of the Pan-Yellow Sea
economic bloc. Based on the findings we came up with from the discussions, the
Secretariat prepared 10 related revision bills to be incorporated into the legislative
processes.
In September, the second such meeting was held in Daejeon Metropolitan City, a
center for Korea’s science, education and culture, where 5 relevant revision bills came
along with our amendment recommendations for these bills’ respective Presidential
ordinances, which were sent to the government.
My second example is the system of obtaining public opinions through different
civic groups.
Previously, civic groups set forth their opinions on legislation only in three ways, 1)
by submitting legislative petitions through a lawmaker to the National Assembly, 2) by
expressing their opinions at public hearings, 3) by submitting their written opinions
during the period of advance announcement of legislation.
I led the National Assembly to more proactively seek civic groups’ opinions on
legislation.
To this end, “a system of Opinion Collection from NGOs” was devised to gather
opinions not only from various NGOs and expert groups, but from business
associations and labor unions, resulting in opinions on about 100 pieces of legislative
amendment and enactment and three revision bills of enforcement ordinance
submitted to lawmakers.
These efforts are designed to incorporate people’s thoughts and ideas from the very
scene of their lives faithfully into legislation.

III. Case 2: The Visitor Center and the Info Center of the National Assembly
Next example of an open National Assembly is the establishment and operation of
the National Assembly’s Visitor Center and Info Center.
The National Assembly Visitor Center currently runs six zones with different
themes, including the Kid Zone which caters to children with many questions on the
National Assembly.
The Visitor Center provides a one-stop service to visitors by allowing them to see
exhibitions associated with the National Assembly’s history, functions and various
legislative activities and also to take a hands-on look at the sessions held in the plenary
chamber.
In the past, the dual operation of the observation at the plenary chamber and the
visit to the exhibition caused some inconveniences to citizens. Therefore, we integrated
these two operations by setting up the National Assembly Visitor Center and
diversified the displayed contents.
By keeping the Visitor Center open even on public holidays, citizens can visit the
National Assembly whenever they want, resulting in more than 150,000 visitors since
February 2010 when the Center was opened.
Separate from the Visitor Center within the precincts of the National Assembly, the
Info Center was launched in a frequently used subway station for those who cannot
84 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

pay a direct visit to the National Assembly due to their busy schedules, providing a
resting area and information related to the National Assembly.
Visitors to the Info Center have access to a host of periodicals and information
leaflets published by the National Assembly and to live broadcast of sessions
underway in the National Assembly. In addition, citizens can offer legislative ideas
and proposals on the spot.
To make a visit to the National Assembly more convenient, I led the way to change
the previous parking practice by allowing visitors to have priority in using the parking
lot within the precincts of the Assembly over Secretariat staff which now uses the
external parking space.
As such, we spare no effort to enhance the image of an open and accessible National
Assembly by making the National Assembly friendlier and approachable to the general
public.

IV. Case 3: Providing an easy and convenient Information Service

Finally, I will touch upon the information provision services with which we give out
information on parliamentary activities and legislation and also gather people’s
opinions.
From the year 2004, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea has established
eight information systems including the Legal Knowledge Information System, letting
people know about parliamentary activities.
From next year, a “Mobile National Assembly” project will be pushed forward, an
advanced form of service provision than the existing Internet-based one, in keeping
with the changing patterns of Internet usage by citizens and with the advancement of
information and communications technology.
The Mobile National Assembly is to upgrade the existing web-based e-Parliament
service into a ubiquitous National Assembly service which combines the existing PC-
based service with mobile services.
With the launch of the Mobile National Assembly service, the current National
Assembly information service will be transformed into a ubiquitous service that can be
accessed through smart phones, tablet PCs and other mobile devices anytime at any
place.
The mobile service will also enable citizens to express their support for a specific
politician or a political party and to make policy suggestions, thereby acting as direct
and indirect channels of communication between the public and the National
Assembly.
In particular, the Mobile National Assembly service is expected to activate
communication with younger generations who are deemed indifferent to politics,
encouraging them to more actively participate and helping restore their trust toward
parliament.

V. Conclusion
I have presented you with some examples of the Korean National Assembly’s efforts
to restore people’s trust and to realize the ideal parliament with unobstructed
communications with the public.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 85

A renowned political economist, Francis Fukuyama cited “trust” among society

members as a critical element of “social capital” in his book, [Trust: The Social Virtues
and the Creation of Prosperity].
Personally, I believe that of all the trust among society members, public trust toward
parliamentary politics and politicians is the most important, yet hardest to achieve.
There is no doubt that an open National Assembly, a communicative National
Assembly and a National Assembly close to people on the very scene of their lives are
integral to winning public trust in parliament.
I do not think a few initiatives or a grandiose parliament building or political
rhetoric are enough to regain people’s trust in parliamentary politics within a short
period of time.
It is my firm belief that small but sincere efforts to listen carefully to people’s voices
will take us on the path toward winning back public trust in parliament.
The National Assembly Secretariat of the Republic of Korea will continue to make
endless efforts to restore people’s trust in parliament through seamless
communications with the general public.”



Mr André GAGNON (Canada) described a school programme in Canada that for

15 years had required every school to spend some time each year ensuring that
children understood Parliament. Parliament had a programme of teacher training to
ensure that they could pursue this programme effectively. He asked at what point
parliamentarians had been consulted in the programme described by Mr Kwon.

Mr Gherardo CASINI (Global Centre, Observer) noted the growing trend

worldwide for everyone to have a mobile phone. One of the biggest challenges for
Parliaments was that citizens were not familiar with the legislative process: had this
challenge been addressed in Korea? He also asked if there were plans to measure the
impact of the strategy, and if so, how. He thanked all ASGP members for providing
information for the Global Centre’s World e-Parliament Report.

Dr V.K. AGNIHOTRI (India) said that in India any citizen could petition any
public authority, and that a Committee on Petitions existed in the Rajya Sabha to
consider these petitions. He asked if similar provision existed in the Republic of Korea.
Mr Ashfaque HAMID (Bangladesh) asked where the meetings with citizens
described by Mr Kwon took place.

Mr Wigberto QUINTERO (Panama) spoke of a worldwide political crisis, in which

citizens felt that elected politicians did not always represent their interests. He asked if
there were provisions for or pressure for direct democracy in Korea as well.
86 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

Mr KWON Oh Eul said that meetings were held around the country following
consultation with local Members of Parliament. Individual parliamentarians listened to
the voices of the people and translated their ideas into legislation. The biggest
challenge for parliamentarians was indeed that their activities were not visible; the role
of the parliamentary secretariat was to help this situation to change. Citizens could,
through parliamentarians, make proposals for legislation, and a committee considered
these proposals. However, citizens could not always find out about the progress being
made by their petition. Local meetings were organised to try to help address this.
Meetings were held all around the country. Citizens could also come to the Assembly
itself. Korea had a highly sophisticated and advanced e-Parliament system.

Ms Mampiti F. NCHAPI (Lesotho) asked how members of the National Assembly

were involved in the meetings described by Mr Kwon.

Mr KWON Oh Eul said that Korean parliamentarians met with citizens themselves
in person. Their involvement was more in policy-making than in law-making. The
secretariat was better able to answer questions that citizens had about law-making.
 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200 87

INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION

Aims
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, whose international Statute is outlined in a
Headquarters Agreement drawn up with the Swiss federal authorities, is the only
world-wide organisation of Parliaments.
The aim of the Inter-Parliamentary Union is to promote personal contacts between
members of all Parliaments and to unite them in common action to secure and
maintain the full participation of their respective States in the firm establishment and
development of representative institutions and in the advancement of the work of
international peace and cooperation, particularly by supporting the objectives of the
United Nations.
In pursuance of this objective, the Union makes known its views on all international
problems suitable for settlement by parliamentary action and puts forward suggestions
for the development of parliamentary assemblies so as to improve the working of those
institutions and increase their prestige.

Membership of the Union

Please refer to IPU site (http://www.ipu.org).

Structure
The organs of the Union are:
1. The Inter-Parliamentary Conference, which meets twice a year;
2. The Inter-Parliamentary Council, composed of two members of each affiliated
Group;
3. The Executive Committee, composed of twelve members elected by the Conference,
as well as of the Council President acting as ex officio President;
4. Secretariat of the Union, which is the international secretariat of the Organisation,
the headquarters being located at:
Inter-Parliamentary Union
5, chemin du Pommier
Case postale 330
CH-1218 Le Grand Saconnex
Genève (Suisse)

Official Publication
The Union’s official organ is the Inter-Parliamentary Bulletin, which appears quarterly
in both English and French. The publication is indispensable in keeping posted on the
activities of the Organisation. Subscription can be placed with the Union’s secretariat in
Geneva.
88 Const.Parl.Inf. 60 (2010), 200

ASSOCIATION OF SECRETARIES GENERAL

OF PARLIAMENTS

Aims
The Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments, constituted as a consultative
body of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, seeks to facilitate personal contacts between
holders of the office of Secretary General in any Parliamentary Assembly, whether such
Assembly is a Member of the Union or not.
It is the task of the Association to study the law, procedure, practice and working
methods of different Parliaments and to propose measures for improving those
methods and for securing cooperation between the services of different Parliaments.
The Association also assists the Inter-Parliamentary Union, when asked to do so, on
subject within the scope of the Association.

Executive Committee (Geneva 2010)

President: Hafnaoui Amrani (Algeria).
Vice-Presidents: Marc Bosc (Canada), José Pedro Montero (Uruguay).
Elected Members: Jacqueline Biesheuvel-Vermeijden (Netherlands), Doris Katai
Katebe Mwinga (Zambia), Heiki Sibul (Estonia), Oum Sarith (Cambodia), Ulrich
Schöler (Germany), Alain Delcamp (France).
Former Presidents and honorary members: Helge Hjortdal (Denmark), Doudou
Ndiaye (Senegal), Sir Michael Davis (United Kingdom), Adelina Sà Carvalho (Portugal),
Ian Harris (Australia), Anders Forsberg (Sweden), Jacques Ollé-Laprune (France).

Constitutional and Parliamentary Information

Published by the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments, under the auspices
of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, is issued twice a year both in English and French.
One number..........................................................................................25 CHF
One year (two numbers)......................................................................40 CHF

Orders for subscription may be sent to:

Mme Sylvie Piard-Beaube
Assemblée nationale. 126, rue de l’Université. F-75355 Paris Cedex 07 SP
Courriel : spiard@assemblee-nationale.fr