Two parliamentary standing committees silent throughout the year

The year comes to a close, but the parliamentary standing committee on the textile and jute ministry has not held a single meeting. The parliamentary standing committee on the Chittagong Hill Tracts ministry has remained similarly inert. According to the Jatiya Sangsad’s rules of procedure, each parliamentary standing committee is to have at least one meeting a month. However, these two committees have remained silent the entire year. Yet one of the major tasks of the committees is to review the performance of the ministries and to investigate irregularities and other serious allegations.

The other committees are not very active either. From January to November this year, 10 of the standing committees have held two meetings each at the most.

Analysts said that the standing committees are supposed to ensure the accountability of the government, that is, of the ministries. But this is not happening due to the inaction of the committees.

Within 10 working days of the beginning of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament), 50 parliamentary standing committees were formed. Though the committees were formed speedily, most of these have hardly any activities at all. Other than one or two, none of the committees are adhering to the rule of holding at least one meeting a month.

Of the 50 committees, 39 are related to ministries. The others are issue-based. In the 11 months of this year (without December), none of the ministry-related committees have had regular monthly meetings. Leaving out the two months of general holiday due to the coronavirus outbreak (from 26 March till 30 May), each committee should have held at least nine meetings in the nine months. But the highest number of meetings was eight each, held by two committees -- the parliamentary standing committee on women and children’s affairs and the parliamentary standing committee on shipping.

The main responsibility of a standing committee is to review the work of the concerned ministry and investigate irregularities and serious allegations. It is also the committee’s task to scrutinise bills and advise the ministries or put forward recommendations.

None of these committees held any meetings in the two months of general holiday declared by the government due to the outbreak of coronavirus. In June, after the general holiday, only the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry held a meeting. The other ministries began holding meetings in July, albeit intermittently.

In the meantime, everything has opened up except educational institutions. During the coronavirus pandemic, even three sessions of parliament have taken place, in adherence to the health guidelines. Yet several committees haven’t summoned meetings.

When asked why not a single meeting was held the entire month, chairman of the standing committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs, Dabirul Islam, told Prothom Alo that he had been unwell. Later when he contracted coronavirus, he went to Madras for treatment. That was why no meeting was held. A meeting had been summoned in December, but it was postponed as the minister and secretary were busy. The meeting will be held in 12 January.

The state-run jute mills saw considerable unrest at the outset of the year, with workers repeatedly rallying for their unpaid dues. The government on 1 July declared the state-owned jute mills closed, claiming continued losses. But the workers have still not been paid their dues.

A decision was made to run the jute mills on a partnership basis between the government and the private sector, but that has not materialised in six months. While the private sector jute mills are running at a profit, the BJMC mills show losses year after year. It is alleged that mismanagement, irregularities and corruption has created this situation. And amidst all this chaos in the jute sector, the parliamentary standing committee on textiles and jute has remained mum.

The health ministry has created the most controversies during the coronavirus pandemic, rife with allegations of irregularities and corruption. But the related committee has been silent. It held one meeting in March at the start of the pandemic, but none since then. Questions remain about this silent role of the committee.

According to the parliamentary secretariat sources, from January to November, the parliamentary standing committees on the food ministry, the industries ministry and the public administration ministry, held one meeting each. Seven other committees held two meetings each. These were the committees on the finance, local government, social welfare, planning, information, health and religious affairs ministries.

The parliamentary standing committees on the ministries of science and technology, post and telecommunications, labour and employment, commerce, agriculture, power and energy, expatriate welfare and overseas employment, primary and mass education, and road transport and bridges, held three meetings each in this time.

The committees which held four meetings each were on the ministries of defence, youth and sports, land, education, home, fisheries and livestock, railways, and housing and public works.

The standing committees on the law, culture, water resources, and disaster management and relief ministries held five meetings each. The standing committees on the liberation war affairs ministry, the civil aviation and tourism ministry and the ministry of foreign affairs held six meetings each.

One of the most active committees of this parliament is the standing committee on the ministry of environment, forests and climate change. It held seven meetings. The parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of women and children’s affairs held eight meetings. While not a ministry-based committee, the standing committee on public accounts held the highest number of meetings this year, 13 in total.

On 30 September, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) published a report, Parliament Watch, on the five sessions of the first year of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad (from January to December 2019) and the performance of the parliamentary standing committees. The report stated that there was a lacking in accountability of the ministries concerned. While there is scope to ensure the accountability of the executive by means of the parliamentary standing committees, this has not been up to expectations.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that the parliament was running even in coronavirus times and so it was expected that the committees would at least hold meetings regularly. The main task of the committees is to ensure the accountability of the ministries. That did not happen.

He further said the silence of the standing committee on the health ministry has been particularly distressing. Perhaps the committees are not concerned about the irregularities and corruption of the ministries or that is not their priority. Questions may arise if their disinterest has any other motive, if this is an attempt to protect certain quarters, the TIB chief said.

* The report, originally published in the print edition of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir