By Saio Marrah.
The Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Abass bundu, has promised to institute a regulation aimed at punishing Members of Parliament for absenteeism and lateness for proceedings.
The Speaker made assurance at the Well of Parliament on Tuesday, December 8th after the Acting Leader of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) in parliament, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, asked him to put a structure in place that will address the promptness and the attendance of lawmakers.
Hon. Kargbo’s request was precipitated by the low turnout of parliamentarians during a hearing to which the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr. Moinina Sengeh, had been summoned to appear before the House to answer questions in relation to the massive failures of Sierra Leonean pupils in the just concluded West Africa Senior School Certificate Extermination (WASSCE).
According to Speaker Bundu, the regulation will provide for the punishment of defaulters.
“The leader of government business has also mentioned about appointed time, for every member coming after that time, not to be allowed into the well. Marking you absent should have principles, not just the act of marking you absent that is important. What consequences should attain for marking somebody absent? I would like that issue to be addressed,” the Speaker told lawmakers.
In his contribution to the issue, Member of Parliament, Joseph Williams Lamin of Constituency 081 in Bo District, noted that the people of their various constituencies voted them into the House as their representatives and that they as MPs were being paid from the tax payers money. He said for this reason, MPs should always be present in the parliament when needed.
The leader of Government Business in the House, Hon. Mattew Sahr Nyuma, said the Chief Whips of the different political parties, the independent candidates and the Paramount Chiefs should execute their responsibilities by taking records of their members who are absent and also late for every session.
He however apologized to the Speaker on behalf of the MPs, calling for mercy. But the speaker insisted that the issue of absenteeism and lateness of MPs had become habitual to most MPs and therefore warranted appropriate action.
Bundu stressed that MPs are expected to be role models to the public because much is expected of them by their constituents and beyond. He ended up calling an emergency meeting of all the leaders of the different political parties in parliament to discuss the mechanism that will mitigate the issue of lateness and absenteeism.
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