JS fails to play its role in curbing corruption: TIB

Jatiya Sangsad (JS) has failed to play its key role in curbing corruption and ensuring good governance and accountability, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in its latest study report said on Thursday.

Instead of giving more concentration on formulation of laws, the lawmakers spent most time on criticising the opposition parties, praising the activities of the ruling party and using unparliamentary language, said the study conducted over the activities of the 10th parliament from January to December in 2017.

According to the findings of the study titled 'Parliament Watch', the people's expectations were not reflected in the parliament proceedings as lawmakers showed tendency to pass bills quickly.

Hailing the events of no 'walkout and boycott' by any political party during the time starting from 14th session to 18th session, it said, "Parliament lost 18 per cent of the times in the form of quorum crisis and using language that violates code of conduct of parliament."

While presenting the report, TIB's deputy programme manager (research and policy) Morsheda Akter said 30 minutes were wasted on an average for quorum crisis in each working day. By such calculation, JS lost 38 hours and 03 minutes during last year sessions and 152 hours and 17 minutes during the 10th parliament.

"We made a calculation to give an idea of financial loss of the time and found that the country lost over Tk 4.9 million each working day (Tk 163,686 a day). With the estimation, the quorum crisis caused a loss of Tk 1.25 billion since the parliamentarians assumed office in 2014," she said.

TIB's another deputy programme manager (research and policy) Nihar Ranjan Roy said the average time of each working day (from 14th session to 18th session) in parliament was three hours and 25 minutes. And 50 per cent of the time was spent for budget discussion and discussion on the statement of the President.

Ministers' question-answer session accounted for 12.4 per cent while only nine per cent was used for formulation of laws. Citing the report findings, TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the members of parliament (MPs) had shown less interest in formulating laws though opposition members' participation in that discussion observed to be increasing.

"But most of their observations and suggestions were not taken into account," he said with mentioning that only five per cent of ruling parliamentarians took part in the law formulation process.

Talking about the role of the opposition party, he said the opposition party was found suffering from identity crisis that was reflected in their participation in parliament.

He said the leader of the opposition was made special envoy to the Prime Minister to brighten the Bangladesh's image abroad as a Muslim-majority country. The country also spent monthly Tk 0.5 million (Tk 500,000) for him.

"But we did not see any documents like gazette or official order in support of the appointment. We also did not see him playing any role as a special envoy during his recent foreign trips," he said.

Responding to the media, TIB chairman Advocate Sultana Kamal said parliamentarians passed a total of 24 bills during the five sessions and each bill got passed in 35 minutes on average while in India, the average time is 2 hours and 23 minutes.

"We expect that the parliamentarians will discuss various issues with the people and in the House before taking any decision. And they took most of the decisions in a quick way here without consulting with the people, which is disgraceful," she said.

She said the MPs wasted more time in praising, criticising and using unparliamentary words but spent a little time in formulating laws for which they go to parliament.

"Parliament is the most key institution in the democratic system. But unfortunately, we failed to make it an institution that will work to curb corruption by ensuring good governance and accountability," she said.

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