The estimated financial loss in the incumbent parliament so far stands at Tk125 crore and 20 lakh as sessions had to be halted for a total of 152 hours and 17 minutes due to quorum crises, Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) said in its Parliament Watch report.
TIB estimates that about Tk1.63 lakh is needed to conduct a parliament session for one minute. The 10th parliament lost 30 minutes on average per working day due to quorum crises during its 18 sessions to date, the transparency watchdog said at a press briefing on Thursday.
From January to December last year in five sessions, a total of 38 hours and 30 minutes was wasted due to quorum crisis which made the parliament incur a financial loss of TK 37.37 crore.
However, TIB said the monetary value attributed to quorum crisis is not exact. The calculations only provide a rough idea of the cost of time wasted in parliament.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman also said that the parliament has spent 35 minutes on average to pass each bill, which accounts for only 9% of working hours. In India lawmakers take two hours and 23 minutes on average to pass a bill.
The TIB claimed that the role of the opposition party in parliament is not clear and they have been suffering from an identity crisis since the beginning. The parliament has not been able to ensure good governance, rule of law and accountability.
There were 76 working days in 2017 spending 260 hours and eight minutes. On average per session was of 3.25 hours.
In the five sessions of parliament in 2017, 36 lawmakers did not take part in any kind of discussion. Of the total time of discussion, ruling party lawmakers used almost 78% of the time allocated for the lawmakers at parliament.
In the question-answer session with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, development planning and poverty reduction issues were discussed the most.
In the question-answer sessions of ministers, development projects were discussed the most.
Also Read- TIB: Offensive language used in parliament for 13 hours
The report also found that although women lawmakers in parliament had a better attendance record than their male counterparts, they took part in fewer discussions.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that the duty of parliamentary committees is to hold the government accountable.
“Many committees failed to hold meetings as per the rule. The issues which are supposed to be discussed sometimes create a conflict of interest among the committee heads.”
Iftekharuzzaman said the TIB will make an overall evaluation through research after the incumbent parliament finishes its tenure to assess if the opposition in the parliament has failed to play its role.
“At this stage we can say that the parliament has failed to play the expected role and the liability lies with the opposition as well as the government,” he said.
The TIB also criticized the government for not making information about international treaties with other countries known to the public.
It said that it is the president's jurisdiction to send international treaty content to the parliament for discussion.
“But in a democratic country it is the public's right to know about the treaties that are discussed in parliament. The public has a right to know the content of treaties that are signed.”
Besides, recommendations the committees make in their reports are not published most of the time. Of the published reports, their all recommendations are not followed by the government.
In 14th to 18th session, none of the main opposition party lawmakers or other opponent lawmakers walked out from the parliament. In these sessions average presence of lawmakers increased compared to the previous year but ministers attended the parliament less frequently.