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Making the Parliamentary Committee More Effective

by K.M.Nurul Huda
***Parliamentarians must exercise, expose and establish the culture and norms of parliamentary democracy as well as strengthen its institutional value for raising its dignity, importance, and acceptability. For the purpose of establishing good governance the Parliamentary Committee must be allowed to oversee the government.***
1 VRUAMEVrARY Commlt-j-^tee is an indispensable part JL of any parliamentary democracy. Committee system in the Parliament is nothing new. It has been evoked through passage of time to cater to the need of the day. There has occurred a paradigm shift in responsibility’ of the Committee with the advent of modern complicated government. In addition to its conventional role of examining Bills for the Parliament and discussing function of the statutory bodies it now conducts investigation on irregularities and holds enquiry upon activities of the Executive. The committee system in Bangladesh brings the legislative and executive organs of the government across the table to discuss utilitarian issues of the nation. It has thus opened an. avenue of exercising good governance that can ensure accountability, transparency and responsiveness of the government agents.
The Committee system in the Indian Parliament started functioning with the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms in 1920. At the initial days Indian Central Legislative Assembly provided only five Committees. At present Indian parliament has 33 Standing Committees Including 18 joint committees with sizes comprising 15 to 35 Members. As traced out from the Journals of the House of Commons the committee system existed in British Parliament since 1810 or so. In the British Parliament there are more or less 30 Committees of which 14 are departmental ones. These comprise Members ranging from 15 to 80. Again, the Committee of the whole House consists of all the Members of the House. In Japan the House of Representatives has 20 and the House of Councilors 17 Standing Committees. The number of members varies from 10 to 50.
Bangladesh Parliament, on the other hand, -deals with as good as 47 Committees and 114 Sub-Committees. Its committee system can broadly be classified into four categories: Core Committee. Ministerial Committee. Select Committee, and Special Committee. First category may comprise 11 committees that deal with the management and administration of the Parliament, statutory bodies of the government and assurances etc. There are 35 ministerial committees one for each Ministry, falling under the second category. The Select Committee and Special Committee do not exist at present. Parliament appoints Special Committee to inquire into special kind of problems. The size of the Committee of Bangladesh Parliament ranges from 8 to 15 Members.
It may not be unconscionable to claim that Bangladesh has moved forward to make the Parliament more effective and efficient than many others in the world. The claim sustains as because a number of estimable changes have taken place Ln the committee system of Bangladesh Parliament since October 1997. Some of them arc (1) there is one committee for each ministry, (11)
no committee functions under the control of the minister-in-charge of the ministry: (ill) ministerial committee examines the respective bills; (tv) the life time of the committee, other than select committee and special committee, follows the tenure of a government; (v) the committees have to sit at least once in a month; (vi) there are a large number of committees and sub-commifiees in the Parliament; (vli) main committee can appoint sub-committees with same power and authority, (viil) the committee size Is smaller than that in other countries; and (ix) committee system enjoys constitutional sustenance; (x) the committee chairpersons have been allotted separate offices with necessary logistics and personal staff paving way to work independently (xl) the ministers are barred to become the chairperson of any committee; (xil) the com mittee may find scope to identify problems or Irregularities of the ministries independently and can ensure accountability and transparency of the government before the Parliament; and (xili) thus the working atmosphere in the committee has been improved under the present system.
The new committee system of Bangladesh Parliament could have generated fresh enthusiasm among the Members in performing more responsibly for
• the nation. The Chairpersons find interest in overseeing the . activities in the government. This statement comes true to see that the Committees of the seventh Parliament convened as good as 1016 meetings up to May/2000. Among them the Public Accounts Committee alone conducted 93 meetings. Of the Ministerial Committees the Finance Committee Is at the top having 45 meetings. The meetings of the Sub-Committees are not counted here. The Members participate in debate most cordially and try to get deep into the subjects towards providing befitting solution to the problems. It seems praiseworthy that even when the Members of the opposition do not participate tn the session of the Parliament they Join In the Committee meetings and make valuable contributions in resolving problems. The Members apparently uphold national interest above other interests and almost none exercise sinister political purpose while they are in the Committee meeting. Every meeting is ended with elaborate proceedings that contain pertinent recommendations. The Members apparently thus contemplate that the meetings yield good result for the people.
The legal base of the commlt-
tee system is that the Constitution of Bangladesh and the Rules of Procedures of Parliament taken together empower the Standing Committees to do a lot of things for the nation. Article 76 of the constitution provides that the Parliamentary Standing Committee may examine draft Bills and other legislative proposals. It can review the enforcement of laws and propose measures for such enforcement, in relation to any matter referred to it by Parliament. It can also investigate or inquire Into the activities or administration of a Ministry and may require It to furnish relevant information and to answer questions, and perform any other function assigned to it by Parliament Parallel to the constitution. Rule 248 of the Rules of Procedures provides that a Committee can review the works in relation to a Ministry, which falls within its Jurisdiction. It can also Inquire into any activity or irregularity and serious complaint in respect of the Ministry and to examine, and to make recommendations. Evidently the Committee can intervene in the affairs of the government for making the administration more public. But in practice the Committee • cannot do much as It ought to
In defiance of legal, conventional and constitutional supports the ambiguous interpretation of Rules, bureaucratic disposition of the executives and lack in authoritative command of the committee could be the reasons that disappoint the virtue of the committee system and thus despoil the nation of owning good governance. Both Committee and Government agents hold arguments on the functioning of the Committee and poor Implementation of the recommendations. The Members complain that (1) the recommendations of the meetings remain unimplemented due to the delinquency of the government agents: (2) despite constitutional enforcement, the government agents are oblivious about taking care of the recommendations of the Committee: (3) status of the committee chairpersons is not defined as a result they cannot come out of the Influence of the mlnister-ln-charge of a ministry; (4) ministry does not co-operate with the committee; (5) though recommendation of a committee is tantamount to a decision of the Parliament the ministry tend to devalue It; (6) some government officials are skeptical to accept new changes in any system and are In favour of maintaining status qua to continue getting benefit; and (7) there are Inadequacies in the rules of proce-
dures that encourage the government to ignore committee recommendations.
The government agents on the other hand argue that (a) the Committee can only recommend their views for Implementation without binding it upon the government to comply with: (b) the committee can review the works as and when it is referred by the Parliament to it; (cj, the committee would first submit recommendations to the Parliament; (d) if Parliament scrutinizes any recommendations only then the government will execute them; (e) committee does not hold inherent power to Investigate any matter of the government on its own discretion; (f) Rule 203 of the Rules of Procedures provides that the government preserves the right to decline to produce any document before the committee if the former considers Its disclosure would be prejudicial to the safety or interest of the State; (g) many committee decisions are equivalent to interference in the day to day administration of the government; and (h) calling files and documents by the committee chairpersons and holding them for indefinite period leads to blockage of development activities and hindrance in normal function of the government.
Committee and government Jointly can bring about a lot of welfare for the nation. Unfortunately. it is not happening. The Executives seemingly pay reluctant demeanor towards the recommendations of the Committee. The Public Undertaking Committee, for an instance, found in a recent follow up meeting that It suggested one Ministry to constitute a Committee to formulate means and wayS for absorbing some 300 master roll employees. The Ministry paid no heed to It in three and a half years time. More or less 5000 recommendations came out of 1016 meetings of the Committee during the period of 7' Parliament up to May 2000. Record may speak of the figure that most of them remained unimplemented. An assessment and evaluation on the Impact of the new Committee system would show that it could not bring about any discernible changes In the administration. As a consequence the virtuous purpose of making the government transparent, responsible and accountable through Committee system Is being frustrated. For the shake of establishing good governance the government agents need be more open and cooperative in responding to the requirement of the Committee.
The Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the country. A
Parliamentary Committee is very much a part of the Parliament. It is often regarded as a mini-Parliament. So far as it could be known no Committee In the world holds executive power to impose Its recommendations on the government In spite of it, I government attributes prefer- . ence to the recommendations of the Committee. One of the impor- I tant functions of the Parliament Is to control and scrutinise gov- I ernment mainly through Its Committees. It can hold the government and individual ministers accountable for their policies and the ways In which their ministries are run. Commit- ' tee thus must assert its sover- j elgnty over the machinery of the government. The government agents should not mix the Parliamentary Committee' With Other executive or enquiry committees of the government. They need to perceive that the recommenda- | tions of a Parliamentary Commit- j tee carry more values and desir- : ability than that of any other committees. At the same time Parliamentary Committee should avoid getting Into the matters of major government 1 policies, matters of day to day administration and identical subjects so that question of parallel or dual administration does not arise. Since the expectation of the taxpayers is to see a stable and transparent government, both organs of the government should do everything to elevate the prominence of the committee system.
Rational settlement of the complaint and argument of both sides through an authoritarian Intervention can revitalize the committee system. There is a Standing Committee of Privileges in the Parliament, ft can be given the responsibility to recommend a workable formula so that the Committee can play vital role to ensure good governance. The Parliament can also constitute a Special Committee for this purpose. The terms of reference of such a Committee may be a) hearing the government agents including the Ministers, and Committee Members Including the Chairperson; b) examining contemporary committee systems of other countries; c) examining the consistency of the relevant rules of the rules of Procedures with the Constitution; and d) recommending measures to be taken. Parliamentarians must exercise. ( expose and establish the culture and norms of parliamentary democracy as well as strengthen I its institutional value for raising its dignity. Importance, and acceptability. For the purpose of establishing good governance the Parliamentary Committee must be allowed to oversee the government By doing so corruption. irregularity, inefficiency, Ineffectiveness and irresponsibility of the government agencies could be reduced and in the long run eradicated. Strong political commitment may help frustrate any evil design of making Die Committee system ineffective. The writer is Joint Secretary. Parliament Secretariat,