The National Assembly committees have not been regularly updating the House about their performance as required under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business 2007. This observation emerges from FAFEN’s review of the National Assembly’s Orders of the Day for the second parliamentary year.
Rule 234-A requires each committee to submit a report on its performance to the National Assembly after every six months.
When were the committees constituted?
The standing committees were elected in May 2024 and most of them became functional by the end of June 2024 after the election of their chairpersons.
Under Rule 200, members of the committees are required to be elected within 30 days of the election of the Leader of the House. Accordingly, the committees should have been elected by April 3, 2024. However, the motion to elect the standing committees was adopted on May 17, 2024.
How many reports were due?
Since committees became functional by the end of June 2024, each committee should have submitted three biannual performance reports by now for the following periods:
- July to December 2024
- January to June 2025
- July to December 2025
According to the National Assembly website, there are 34 ministerial standing committees, five non-ministerial committees, and three special committees.
What is the status of reporting?
FAFEN’s review shows uneven compliance with the reporting requirement:
- Fourteen committees — eight ministerial, four non-ministerial, and two special committees — have not presented any biannual performance report during the past one and a half years.
- Nineteen committees — 17 ministerial, one non-ministerial, and one special committee — have presented one performance report each.
- Nine committees, all ministerial, have presented two performance reports each.
No committee has submitted all three biannual reports that should have been laid before the House by this time.
Were committees not working during this period?
The absence of periodic performance reports does not necessarily indicate inactivity. According to information available on the National Assembly website, committees have presented 126 reports on matters referred to them by the House.
However, the rules require separate biannual performance reports detailing overall functioning and activities. The irregular submission of such reports indicates non-compliance with the procedural requirement to periodically inform the plenary about committee performance.
