Mr. Speaker, I rise to contribute to debate on the motion currently before the House.
Mr. Speaker, Parliament has been described as “The Peoples’ House” and as “The Highest Court of the Land”.
This August House as the third arm of Government, carries a constitutional responsibility to make laws, and to hold accountable the Executive and the Judiciary, in a balancing act required by the separation of powers.
As I reported this morning Sir, my delegation and I visited the Speaker of the House of Commons last week. It was an exhilarating visit and as I stated this morning, Mr Hoyle the Speaker of the House of Commons was only too willing to render assistance to strengthen this House.
In turning to the Report before the House today Sir, I want to firstly commend the Standing Committee for their report. For the latter half of the period under review, I was Leader of the Loyal Opposition of this August House.
Please allow me Sir, to acknowledge yourself, the Secretary General and all the staff of the Legislature for the long hours of dedicated service to the nation. I am aware a few staff have also passed on along the journey since Parliament was re-established in 2014 and I recognize the often difficult environment the Secretariat operated in.
I must also commend Sir, the new Standing Orders issued in July last year, which are serving the House well. I now turn to the Report and recommendations made. At the outset Mr. Speaker, please allow me to express my concern at the length of time taken to review this report – eight months.
This seems unusually long when no public consultations were held by the Committee or is perhaps due to the delay in response to queries from the Committee?
Perhaps in future Sir, all reports being reviewed by the Standing Committees of Parliament should be open for public comment.
In this way, we parliamentarians and all Agencies funded from the appropriations approved by this House, should know the views of the people on how their taxes have been used.
All annual reports are now in digital format, so they may simply be emailed out to citizens and organisations who perhaps sign up to be on the parliament email distribution list, and they can make oral or written submissions to the Standing Committees. I turn now to Recommendation 1. I support the recommendation for timely submission of Annual Reports.
This is a legal requirement breached by the consistent delay across the whole of Government in submitting annual reports. The Financial Management Act requires Annual Reports be tabled to Parliament promptly and the failure to comply was evident when I was Leader of Opposition where we were debating reports from 2007 and some Ministries and Agencies had not submitted Annual Reports since 2013.
This sad state of affairs continues today and I continue to urge Ministers to ensure their Ministries and any Commissions and Statutory bodies under their portfolio must report promptly to Parliament as required by the Financial Management Act 2004. With regard to Recommendation 2 Sir, for another job evaluation exercise, as there continues to be a high turnover in Parliament Secretariat perhaps it is time to consider bonding staff for the investment made by Government in their development.
For those who proceed on study leave with pay, that the Secretary General consider bonding them for a certain period of time, and those who undertake trainings, conferences and workshops whether in Fiji or overseas to be similarly bonded for a certain period of time.
While we do not want to stunt career progression of civil servants, Government must take steps to safeguard the investment made by taxpayers in civil servants to at least benefit from the knowledge gained for some time, before they are released.
As Prime Minister and Minister for the Public Service, it is commendable that international agencies, regional agencies, NGOs, and embassies find civil servants to be exceptional additions to their workforce, however as Head of Government this is a consideration to be made across the service.
On Recommendation 3, this has been implemented with the upgrade of the IT 12 system and digitization of Committee Sittings. With regard to Recommendation 4 Sir, on the review of Standing Orders in particular the use of Standing Order 51, the Review has already been carried out last year.
I feel Sir that I must discuss SO 51 in some detail given the protests from the Loyal Opposition to its use on the Bills tabled yesterday. As you are aware Sir, as a former Cabinet Minister yourself, Standing Order 51 has always existed in the Standing Orders in some format.
This is to allow the Government of the Day to fast-track urgent legislation, where consultation is not possible in an emergency, or where extensive consultations have already been carried out.
Where consultations have already been carried out with stakeholders and the public by the responsible Ministry, then referral of Bills to Standing Committee will be redundant.
In this case, the use of SO51 is justified. As former Leader of Opposition, we protested the over-use and the abuse of SO51 precisely because the majority of Bills had not undergone consultations, which was a habit of the former Government.
An analysis of laws enacted from 2014- 2022 found that almost all Bills were fast-tracked through SO51.
It is therefore perhaps hypocritical for the Opposition to protest when they did not consult the people, and over-use of SO51.
With regard to Recommendation Five (5) Sir, I propose that this requirement apply to all Annual Reports from Ministries, Departments, Commissions, Statutory Bodies and Public Enterprises.
I hope Sir that my comments will be taken as constructive and in the interest of the nation.
I thank you Mr. Speaker for allowing me to contribute to this debate, and I commend the Motion to the House and may we continue to work collaboratively for the betterment of Fiji.
Vinaka Vakalevu