Transparency International Bangladesh has suggested that the government should amend existing rules to bar immediate past ministers from heading parliamentary standing committees.
TIB said the Rules of Procedure of parliament should be updated to ensure transparency and accountability of the executive.
In its maiden report on the performance of the first session of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad, the Berlin-based NGO’s Bangladesh chapter said main opposition Jatiya Party had been suffering from an identity crisis.
While unveiling its report at the Brac Centre in the capital’s Mohakhali, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the 10th legislature was not fully functional although the culture of opposition boycott had gone.
He said the crisis created by the absence of MPs had eased; but the speaker had not played an assertive role in stopping the use of “unparliamentary” words.
“Immediate past ministers should not be made the chairmen of the standing committees on the ministries they had headed. Because, they can influence the discussions on the unpleasant issues from their tenures,” Iftekhar told journalists.
Twelve ministers of the previous government were made chairmen of the 10-member watchdog bodies on the ministries they had headed in the immediate-past term.
Former state minister for liberation war affairs AB Tajul Islam is currently the head of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.
An investigation has found Tajul’s links with the scandal related to poor quality of gold in the crests given to foreigners to honour them for their 1971 roles.
However, on Sunday, a sub-committee of the Tajul-led parliamentary body, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had not found any involvement of the former minister.
On Jatiya Party, Iftekhar said: “They have been suffering from identity crisis because they are opposition on one hand and part of the government on the other.”
He said there could not be a stone-gold pot. “Either it is stone or it is gold.”
TIB also pointed out in the report that unlike the previous parliament, no opposition MP had been made the chief of any standing committee.
In the first session, on an average, 64% of the MPs turned up in a sitting; the ratio was 68% in the 9th parliament.
The research also said only 18% of the members of the first parliament in 1973 were businessmen; in the current parliament, 59% MPs are also businessmen.
Recommendations
The Members of Parliament Code of Conduct Bill 2010, which Awami League MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury tabled in the last parliament, should be enacted. The parliamentary standing committee concerned also recommended its passage.
The government must place all international deals and protocols with foreign countries at the House.
The ruling party should take necessary measures to investigate the allegations of conflict of interest at the parliamentary standing committees.
There should be a provision for electing the deputy speaker from the opposition.