In modern democratic society, parliament is a group of peoples’ representatives who are elected to make a country’s laws and discuss national affairs. In modern politics and history, it is a legislative body of government. The parliament of any country plays an important role in the life of a nation.
Scholars categorize the functions of modern parliament into three main parts: a) making new laws, changing existing laws and repealing laws which are no longer needed, b) representing and articulating the views and wishes of the citizens in decision making processes, and c) overseeing the activities of the executive bodies via hearings and inquiries (scrutiny).
Scholars say achieving good governance requires the existence of a strong, effective and efficient parliament. This is so because parliament plays a crucial role in evaluating, collating and presenting the views and needs of the people, articulating their expectations and aspirations in determining the national development agenda.
Parliament helps identify problems and policy challenges that require attention and assists in overcoming bureaucratic inertia.
The House has been criticized for being under the influence of the executive body and failing to fulfil its responsibility in terms of overseeing the activities of sector institutions and executive bodies. Members of the parliament (MPs) have also been being criticized for being loyal to their party instead of being a true representative of their electorate.
As everyone knows, in the past years, there were widespread violation of human rights, waste of resources, and corruption in our country. But, instead of following up on these problems and getting them corrected, members of the parliament (MPs) were inactive. MPs also have been criticized for passing un-enabling laws against the Constitution.
Comparing to previous years, last year was a very challenging year for House of Peoples’ Representatives. Like another organizations encounter, COVID-19 pandemic has impacted negatively the activities of the House.
Although the House faced challenges, it has done various encouraging works. It has scrutinized and approved various proclamations; amended un-enabling laws of the country; overseen executive bodies; ratified various extradition and cooperation agreements that Ethiopia signed with other countries; conducted field observations; approved resolutions; among others.
All members of the House registered their wealth in compliance with the nationwide effort to nip in the bud corruption and embezzlement.
House Speaker Tagesse Chaffo handed over a document in which any type of personal properties and resources of his own are annexed, MPs in general and senior members including that of the officials of the Secretariat of the House are registered to the federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
During the event, the Speaker said that this would support the effort to fight corruption and enable the concerned bodies to discharge their responsibilities
He also elaborated that asset disclosure and registration is intended to enable the proper utilization of resources of the nation. As the main objective of registering wealth is to utilize the limited resources of the country properly and ensure development, government institutions have to abide by the law and announce their wealth to the Commission, he stressed.
Commissioner of Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Tsega Aragie on his part awarded certificates to MPs and other officials who were involved in the process in recognition of their transparency, it was revealed.
Overseeing the activities of the executive bodies via hearings and inspections is one of the main functions of the House of Peoples’ Representatives granted by the constitution. The monitoring and oversight activities of the council had been carried out in three areas: evaluating plan and performance report of institutions, field observation, and members’ representation activities and reports. These activities had been guided and implemented by the House’s standing committees and the main session of the House.
Members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives including House Speaker Tagesse Chafo, Deputy Speaker Shitaye Minale, and Representatives of House’s Sub-Standing Committees held field observation at the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) to observe the readiness of the Board to conduct the upcoming sixth national general election.
Members of the House also observed materials prepared by the Board for the upcoming elections, and expressed appreciation for the encouraging work of the Board.
House Speaker Tagesse Chaffo told journalists that all materials prepared for the elections are much better than the materials that we used in previous national elections. He said, “The previous ballot box was suitable for fraud. But now, as we have seen, the ballot box is transparent.”
The House of Peoples’ Representatives, in its 6th year 3rd regular meeting, approved the state of emergency which was declared by the Council of Ministers over Tigray regional state following the brutal attack of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) against the North Command of Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF), and established State of Emergency Inquiry Board that has seven members to follow up the implementation of the decree.
It is to be recalled that the Council of Ministers decreed the sixth-month state of emergency by recognizing the constitutional responsibility of the state to maintain the country’s peace, the safety and security of its citizens and to prevent acts that may lead the country to further unrest and instability.
According to the statement issued by the Council of Ministers, illegal and violent activities within Tigray region are endangering the Constitution and constitutional order, public peace and security, specially threatening the country’s sovereignty, seriously impeding the federal government from discharging its constitutional responsibility in the region.
“This situation has reached a level where it cannot be prevented and controlled through the regular law enforcement mechanism,” it was indicated.
In connection with the killings and displacements of citizens (ethnic-Amharas) and property damages in Metekel zone of Benishangul Gumuz regional state, the House of Peoples’ Representatives, in its 6th year 7th regular meeting, ordered to Foreign Relations and Peace Affairs Standing Committee, as well as Legal, Justice and Democracy Affairs Standing Committee to investigate the matter and come up with a resolution.
Following this, the two aforementioned standing committees presented a resolution that proposes various solutions to stop the killings and displacements of citizens and property damages in Metekel zone to the House’s main session.
The House also approved the resolution by majority vote. The resolution recommends the executive bodies to extend the state of emergency (SoE), which was declared over the Tigray regional state by the federal government to protect constitutional order, into Metekel zonal administration. It was learnt that the resolution proposes to broaden the scope of the aforementioned SoE into Metekel zone if it is not possible to control and stop the problem in the zonal administration under the normal law.
In this fiscal year that is coming to an end, Human Resource and Technology Affairs Standing Committee of the House held discussion with the officials of higher education institutions on findings of Standing Committee’s field observation at ten public universities of Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Adama Science and Technology, Bahir Dar, Debre Markos, Dilla, Semera, Jigjiga, Addis Ababa Science and Technology, and Dire Dawa.
In addition to higher officials of the aforementioned universities and members of the Human Resource and Technology Affairs Standing Committee, Minister and State Minister of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) Samuel Urkato (PhD) and Samuel Kifle (PhD) also attended the discussion.
It was reported that the Standing Committee has conducted field inspection at the above-mentioned public universities to observe the activities of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic prevention, peaceful learning teaching process, research and community services, as well as to notice audit findings, construction projects, the performance of multi-sectoral issues, and others in these universities.
This year, the House also approved proposal which was presented by the Council of Ministers to designate the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Shene group as terrorist groups as per the Proclamation on Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism Crimes No.1176-2020.
According to the statement issued by the Council of Ministers, over the past couple of years the two groups TPLF and Shene have committed crimes in different parts of the country that could be considered as acts of terrorism.
Last month, Women, Youth and Social Affairs Standing Committee, as well as Revenue, Budget and Finance Affairs Standing Committee of House of Peoples’ Representatives of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) held a field visit to look at the labour sector under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, particularly members of the two standing committees of the House scrutinized the activities of Commercial Nominees in connection with employee handling.
After the field inspection, the standing committees held a half-day discussion with the concerning bodies – Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, officials of CN and CBE, representatives of private employment agencies, right advocators, representatives of employees, and others – on report of field inspection. The stakeholders also discussed on how to solve problems in the labour sector.
Recently, Legal, Justice, and Democracy Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia evaluated the nine months performance report of the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) and held half-day discussions with the top officials of the Authority on the report.
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
The Ethiopian Herald 30 May 2021
