Civil Sector Participation in the Work of Parliamentary Committees Unsatisfactory

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Citizens' Association MOST presented yesterday, July 31, 2012, its Report from the monitoring of the work of 31 parliamentary committees at the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia in the period June 25, 2011 – June 1, 2012.

Citizens' association MOST

The Report, notes CA MOST, doesn’t aim to evaluate the success of the work of the committees or point out at its defects, but to evaluate the success from the viewpoint of attendance by MPs, the participation of other stakeholders, the number of bills read in the Committees and the number of public and inquiry hearings held.

From the viewpoint of participation of the civil sector in the work of the parliamentary committees, MOST’s analysis points out that it is far from satisfactory. The association notes that civic associations need to develop additional channels for communication with the executive branch of the government and to take part in creation of policies and legislation bills by the government ministries.

According to the Report, 18 committees read a total of 282 bills, 228 of which are adopted by the Parliament (75 new laws and 153 changes and amendments to existing legislation. Of the total of 282 read bills, 238 were submitted by the Government, 44 proposals were submitted by MPS, and there were no bills or new legislation proposed by groups of citizens.

The Report names Bekim Fazliu (DPA) who took part in 11 of the 44 sessions of the Legislative Committee; Rafet Muminović (ДУИ) who participated in five of the 34 sessions of the Finances and Budgets Committee; and Irfan Deari (DUI) who participated in four of the 14 sessions of the Committee on Healthcare, as the three MPs that had the lowest attendance in the work of their respective committees.

The report also notes that MPs Teuta Arifi, Amdi Bajram and Fijat Canoski didn’t attend a single session of their respective committees.

The Report was prepared under the auspices of “My Parliament” Project, which aims to promote the concept of greater participation of citizens in decision making and policy creation processes. (Source: Plusinfo.mk/author: M.V.)