Only 16.7% of total working time was spent on the formulation of laws of the 11th parliament, according to the latest “Parliament Watch” report by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
The report was unveiled by TIB at its office on Sunday morning.
The report demonstrated that other parliaments have dedicated a larger portion of their time to legislative affairs.
The report cited that the UK parliament spent 49.3% of its total parliamentary proceedings time engaged in legislative affairs during 2019-20.
Similarly, India’s parliament, the 17th Lok Sabha, devoted 45% of its total parliamentary proceedings time to legislative affairs for the term 2018-19.
TIB prepared the report based on the 11th Parliament's first to 22nd sessions between January 2019 and April 2023.
During the period, a total of 744 hours and 13 minutes was spent in parliamentary proceedings.
Excluding the 12 budget-related bills, the total number of bills introduced was 108, and of them 96 -- 68 new bills, 26 amendment bills, and 2 repeal bills -- were passed in the House.
On average, it took nearly an hour and 10 minutes to pass a bill in parliament, where the minimum time was almost 28 minutes, and the maximum time was nearly 3 hours and 25 minutes, according to the report.
The total number of members of the National Parliament is 350. The quorum of the parliament is complete with the presence of at least 60 members. If the quorum is not fulfilled, the JS session cannot be held.
The study said that the quorum crisis claimed a total of 54 hours and 38 minutes, which is 6.5% of the total parliamentary proceedings time.
On average, 14 minutes and 8 seconds were lost due to quorum crisis per working day.
The average cost per minute of running the Parliament is about Tk2.72 lakh.
The estimated financial value of the total time spent due to the quorum crisis was nearly Tk89.28 crore, the report added.
It also said that about 27% of the time was spent on public representation and accountability.
About 26% of the time was spent on the president's speech and discussions on it.
Members of the government party participated in the discussion of the motion of thanks brought on by the president's speech and spent a great deal of time praising the prime minister and the party and talking about the government's achievements.
The study highlighted that 19.4% time was spent talking about government achievements.
TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman emphasized the influence of the ruling party’s majority over parliamentary proceedings.
It cannot be said that the parliament has been able to play the expected role, he said.
Due to the overwhelming majority of the ruling party, a predominance of unilateral power practice in parliamentary activities is one of the major obstacles for having an effective parliament.
Jatiya Party as the main opposition party played a dual role in parliamentary activities, showing a shortfall in playing a significant role in making the parliament effective, he added further.
