The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu and Clinton Moyo, Sunday News Reporters
THE Attorney-General Department is in the process of realigning 60 laws to the Constitution although there are fears that some Government departments were not co-operating fully.
Speaking during a Liaison and Co-ordination Committee Retreat at a Bulawayo hotel yesterday, Attorney-General Advocate Prince Machaya said there was serious lack of commitment to ensure that laws are aligned to the Constitution and they have introduced a Bill Tracker.
“We have 59 laws that need alignment, we have a Bill Tracker which is showing us that these need to be acted upon. The one Act which will make it 60 is a general laws amendment which will address the gender parity requirements for statutory requirements in relation to 66 Acts of Parliament,” said Adv Machaya.
He said where an Act of Parliament establishes a board and states that it needs a certain number of people, some are silent on gender composition while others state it.
“But we have been looking at how practical the Act that spells out gender parity is to the extent that the existing board may not meet the required specifications. We have discovered that in the boards the female requirement has not been met either because there were no females that were interested or there were no females with the required qualifications,” he said much to the disappointment of female parliamentarians who attended the retreat.
Adv Machaya said more Acts of Parliament still need further alignment.
“The Bill Tracker indicates where progress has been done or none at all. The first ministry is the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Water which has acts that require alignment which is the Environmental Management Act and the Water Act.
“The Ministry should then present a report on what they think should be done in regards to realignment. Once approved by Cabinet it will then be taken to Parliament,” he said.
With regards to Acts that were left behind he said more speed was required but it is only possible if Parliament assists the process.
“We prepared a schedule of Acts of Parliament which we have assigned to the relevant portfolio committees. They require correction and amendment, we did what we feel is important and appropriate. The committees concerned should call upon the ministries whose legislation falls under them to explain why there is slow movement in alignment of legislation,” said Adv Machaya.
“I presented to Cabinet that some ministries still have no movement perhaps this is where the committees of parliament with powers have to put pressure on the ministers concerned to get movement of the process. Some ministries have refused to submit proposals of alignment, instead they are suggesting that the Constitution itself should be amended.”
He said there has been movement with regards to Acts assigned to Home Affairs. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda expressed his displeasure at chairpersons of Liaison and Coordination Committees for failing to meet monthly to consider the business of the committees. Speaking at the same meeting Adv Mudenda said the failure of the committees is a violation of the standing rules and orders with impunity.
“The LCC has not been meeting monthly to consider the business of Committees. You will agree with me that it is in that context that I am not particularly pleased by the state of affairs. That is the violation of our standing rules and orders with impunity,” said Adv Mudenda.
He, however, applauded the portfolio committees for pushing for the submission of monthly, quarterly and annual financial statement reports by various Ministries.
“I am pleased to note that most Portfolio Committees have aggressively pushed for the submission of these reports as evidenced by the significant increase in the number of reports to 18 out of 26 for the first quarter of 2017 as opposed to five out of 26 during the period of the previous year,” he said.
He also urged committee clerks to have an administrative audit on the committees’ reports.
“It is pleasing that the majority of the committee reports recommendations have been and are being implemented timeously. I urge your committee clerks to have an administrative audit on the implementation process so that there is some traceable paper trail,” said Adv Mudenda.
