Parliament fails to play basic role, TIB says

The parliament has failed to play its basic role in the areas of governance, corruption and accountability, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has said.

Only 9.0 per cent of the time was spent over legal formulation, it said in the Parliament Watch Report 2017 on Thursday.

The rest was gone either in quorum crisis, criticising the Opposition and hailing the activities of the ruling party, the TIB said.

The report shows that the House lost 38 hours and 03 minutes due quorum crisis during the five sessions (14th to 18th), the financial loss of which is estimated around Tk 374 million (Tk 49,10580 per hour).

The 10th parliament so far lost over Tk 1.25 billion due to due to its 152 hours and 17 minutes of quorum crisis.

The time the quorum crisis ate up is also equal to 12 per cent of the total time the parliamentarians spent since assuming office in 2014.

Citing the report, TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the MPs show less interest in formulating laws though the participation of the Opposition has been observed to be increasing.

“Most of their observations and suggestions were not taken into account, though," he said.

TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said the members of parliament continued using abusive words though it runs contrary to the code of conduct, eating up five per cent of the total time.

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