Staff Reporter :
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Thursday said the quorum crisis of the present 10th Parliament has caused wastage of Tk 125.20 crore from tax payers’ money.
“During the Parliament’s first session to 18th session it suffered a total of 152 hours 17 minutes of quorum crisis and its money values stood at Tk 125.20 crore,” TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said it at a press briefing at it’s office at Dhanmondi in the city.
The press briefing organized to release a research findings titled ‘Parliament Watch’.
There are 350 members in the Parliament. The quorum crisis emerge with presence of less than 60 MPs in the house. The research finding also said Parliament spent 13 hours using offensive language in 14th to 18th sessions. It incurred losses of Tk12.76 crore. Parliament spent 260 hours and eight minutes over 76 working days during those sessions that continued from January-December last year. “A section of MP’s used obscene language continuously, which was 5 percent of the total time. This is a violation of house rules,” TIB Chief said.
“MPs used obscene language attacking opposition in discussions which were not related to parliament, in the absence of fellow lawmakers and political rivals. It costs Tk1.63 lakh per minute on an average to run a parliamentary session,” the report said. The report also shows that the average quorum crisis in each working day was 30 minutes and its estimated cost in term of money is Tk 49.10 lakh.
According to the report the 14th to 18th sessions of the 10th parliament spent only 9 per cent time for formulating law.
On an average only 35 minutes were discussed for passing a bill, the report said whereas in India it takes average two hours 30 minutes. Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the lawmakers particularly treasury bench members are reluctant to participate in discussion relating to enacting law. He said the present parliament so far failed to fulfill expectation of playing the role of establishing good governance, accountability and check corruption. Muhammad Rafiqul Hasan, the Research and Policy Director of the organization, said about Tk five lakh was spent every month for Jatiya Party Chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad as he is holding a portfolio of Special Envoy of the Prime Minister to Middle East.
He said, “There is no notification or gazette making Ershad as the Prime Minister’s Middle East affairs Envoy. But a huge number of money is being spent every month from the treasury. But he played no role as the special envoy.”
