By Wezzie Gausi:
Democracy Works Foundation (DWF) has accused Parliament of ‘sitting’ on reports stakeholders present to it, attributing the problem to lack of sound follow-up mechanisms.
DWF Regional Director Augustine Magolowondo said this in Lilongwe Thursday, when stakeholders discussed the issue of oversight agency reports utilisation in Parliament.
“There is a need to ensure that reports presented to the institution by stakeholders are very well scrutinised and acted upon. Parliament [officials] need to understand that it is not enough to look at reports and let things end there. They have to take action and give out recommendations,” he said.
Magolowondo said, once government ministries, departments and agencies’ officials realise that Parliament would be holding them to account, they would be taking issues seriously.
- Advertisement -
Anti-Corruption Bureau Principal Corruption Officer Jimmy Mtafya concurred with Magolowondo, saying, when oversight institutions submit reports to Parliament, they expect that it would scrutinise the recommendations and provide feedback.
He said, most times, Parliament fails to give feedback to the institutions.
“We expect change from Parliament on how they handle these reports,” Mtafya said.
Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament Chairperson Albert Mbawala said the biggest challenge is that Parliament is financially challenged.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
He said, for instance, that committees meet only once in every quarter.
“When we meet once in every quarter, we meet for only five days, which are not enough.
“What the stakeholders have noted is very true but the big challenge is time. [Time] to look at reports is very minimal. That time is not enough to look at the reports critically.
“And some reports are very technical, which means that members of Parliament need some sort of training to understand and make use of the reports that the committees receive,” Mbawala said.
