Reps roll out 4-year legislative agenda

Posted by admin Uncategorized Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal yesterday rolled out a four year legislative agenda with a resolve to do things differently and reverse the business-as-usual approach that has been a source of worry to the public.

After a closed-door session that lasted for over three hours, Tambuwal said the agenda of the seventh National Assembly would be people-centred and correspond with the expectations of Nigerians by building a new image for the legislature.
“We acknowledge that the House has had to navigate the difficult terrain of wining public trust and confidence and even of being the champion of the people’s cause.”
As a result, the Speaker noted that the House had recognised the concerns by Nigerians about the cost of running the National Assembly.

“The House will be more transparent regarding all public funds spent for the purpose of paying the salaries and allowances of legislators and ensure that distinction is sufficiently made between what a legislator earns and what is spent to run and implement legislative business and committee activities.

“The watchword in financial issues will be financial conservatism.”
Tambuwal said the seventh session would run on information technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness through investing in modern and sophisticated communication technology for effective communication among members and between the members, staff of National Assembly and the general public.

For proper keeping of records, he assured that electronic voting would be a regular feature of House proceedings, as the House was ready to work with the National Assembly bureaucracy for more effective and reliable archival system.
The Speaker said there would be a viable and robust national economy by putting in place legislative measures to achieve the best development outcome from government spending, including promotion of economic growth and social welfare.
Budgetary system, he said would be based on effective prioritisation of spending, programmes, spreading of resources on capital projects and effective monitoring and outcome to achieve value for money.

He stated that the House would embark on the review of the 1999 Constitution as amended by the Sixth Assembly, particularly section 82 that gave powers to the President to incur expenditure up to six months after the budget have been passed.
The period of grace for the President to spend money, he said would be reduced to three months.
In conjunction with the Senate, Tambuwal assured that the House will work to make the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO) fully functional for a well -researched and investigated information to members on several fiscal issues.
Laws pertaining to the remittance of government revenues would be amended to block loopholes, while donor funds, loans and grants would be closely monitored to eliminate duplication of funding projects.

In the 23-page document containing the framework, the Speaker said the House would continue the effort at constitution reforms already begun by the sixth National Assembly, adding that the successful model of technical cooperation with the Senate, that saw the first ever amendment in a civilian setting would “be adopted and fine tuned again to achieve results.”
According to him, the amendment process would evolve from the yearnings and aspirations of the people, noting that the House had recognised the concerns of Nigerians on several issues, “including land reforms, electoral reforms, budgetary processes, fiscal federalism, local government and states creation among others.

Between now and 2015, Tambuwal said “in the next four years, the House of Representatives will pursue an aggressive legislative agenda to reposition itself as a key branch of government able and determined to deliver on the key elements of governance.”

Since 2009, he noted that legislative practices might not have met public expectations and that a lot of times, the legislative intentions or priorities had not been communicated enough.
“It is a new day, a new House of Representatives and we are prepared to meet and surpass the expectations of the Nigerian people to represent their best interests.”

Tambuwal stated that the House will carry out a review of its internal processes, with a view to delivering better quality and more passage of Bills, and Committees’ activities to be held to standards of efficiency, transparency and accountability among others, and to redefine the scope, methodology and effectiveness of oversight.
Others include reducing cost of governance and wastages through duplication of functions by government departments and agencies, a revisit to the rested Petroleum Industry Bill, streamlining of government agencies’ functions among several other reforms and people centred legislations.

Tambuwal pledged that the House will sustain cordial relationship with the Senate through routine consultations and meetings for the smooth functioning of the National Assembly, as well as ensuring regular interface with State Houses of Assembly and Conference of Presiding Officers of Nigerian Legislatures [COPON].

The House, he noted would facilitate constructive engagement with the Executive, while ensuring the independence and autonomy of the Legislature as enshrine in the Constitution.
“There are challenges ahead of us and we believe that our work here will mark a watershed in the political history of Nigeria.”

-Sunwp_posts