Week 3 - Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 23, 2009 9:09:50 AM PDT Author: Brooke Is it considered desirable in your country that society – individuals as well as groups – should have the opportunity to contribute through committees to the work of the legislature? If so, does it happen and to what extent? Brooke Prater WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program parliamentarystrengthening@gmail.com

Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 23, 2009 10:46:30 AM PDT Author: Moderator Committees are always free to ask for named persons to come before them and to call for papers and records to be produced. It is less common in the countries of the Commonwealth for individuals and groups to be allowed to volunteer or offer their presence in order to place certain arguments before committees. As legislatures mature, they will become more open to the idea that individuals and groups that committees may not even know about may have valid ideas to offer. Like commissions of inquiry they may well advertise for relevant views to be placed before them. Individuals and groups will then be in a position to offer their knowledge of particular situations for the consideration of the committee. There could be adverse reaction to these approaches from within society itself. There may be feelings that certain groups, allegedly the more vocal ones, are being given favoured treatment. It is only when results of the more open approach are seen that such animosities will die down and be replaced by acceptance that openness is a necessary concomitant of democracy and good government. What are the experiences of colleagues on the course? Can this kind of openness be abused? Or will it help the growth of democratic structures and of good governance?

Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 24, 2009 10:30:50 PM PDT Author: karoli In Uganda's Parliament, Committee do the bulk of the work. It is at the Committee level where the dettails regarding any matter before parliament is handled, be it a bill, an inquiry, ministerial policy statements or petition. The Committee meeting are open to the public except for exceptional cases where witnesses request for a closed meeting. In cases where many stakeholders are involved, Parliament advertises in the media inviting these poeple to come and give their views before the Committee. The media has free acess to the committee proceedings. After the deliberations and consideration of issues at the Committee level, it reports to the House and these reports are debated and adopted by Parliament. Our Committee system is very vibrant and has over the years evolved into very important aspects of democratic development in the country.

Week 3 - Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 24, 2009 10:30:56 PM PDT Author: Asad No doubt, the Committees work in my country and are playing efficient role of the Parliamentary oversight.It summons the senior officials,ministers and other relevent perosns to give their point of view on the matter(s) under consideration.If it deems necessary,it also seeks views from other individuals and stake holders also to bring improvement in the system and provide relief to the general public.

Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 24, 2009 11:09:11 PM PDT Author: Asad You will agree with me that there are good and bads attached to each and every aspect of life.the committee system is no exception.but the thing is that openness of the committees contribute positively to ensure good governance and the true spirit of a democratic set up.the same is the case with my country.Openness of the Committee meetings and proceedings have brought improvement in the system.some individuals may at times try to manipulate but people at large are getting relief from the system.

Parliamentary Committees and its interaction with public Date: Mar 25, 2009 4:19:14 AM PDT Author: srm In India Committee system is function very efficiently. Committees are Parliament in miniature. As the House do not get sufficient time to go into the details of each and every matter, these matter are considered by the Committees and these committees invariably report back to the House. While these committees examine different topics they invite members of public, experts, non-governmental organizations to furnish material and if needed appear for oral evidence. Besides these while committee take up a subject it regularly watch the development happenings in the area through press and media coverage. To analyse the process of nomination made to different committees, it may be mentioned that Members are proportionately nominated by different political groups who consider the interest of the Member and his experience in the field. When a new member enter a committee over the years he gained enough experience and the experience in committee matters when a member is selected as a Minister in the similar field. There are different types of Committees in Parliament of India (both the Houses) viz. Financial Committees (exclusively in Lok Sabha) Standing Departmental Committees ( eleven in Lok Sabha and 7 in Rajya Sabha ) are shared by both the Houses. Besides the Committees which deal with only House most of the Committees constantly interact with general public and interest groups by getting feedback through material, evidence, on sight visits. Committee invite comments/ suggestions of all the concerned through advertisement in the Newspapers, electronic media. The Reports of the Committees are also highlighted in the Press. However, it is usually felt that the importance of the recommendations are not suitably highlighted to catch the attention of the public.

Week 3 - Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 25, 2009 10:58:52 PM PDT Author: ekky Karoli has given a brief on what happens in Uganda. I just wanted us to note that activites of some committees are not open to the Public. This incluses the committee on Appointments and the Bussiness committee. The rules also allow committees to meet in closed sessions whenever they think it is necessary. I wanted to address an issue raised by the moderator regarding groups and individual accessing committees. In uganda individuals and groups are free to access committees when they so wish. They can do this through the Clerk to the committee. Petitions are also good entry points for the public. Whenever a petition is before a committee stakeholders are given a chance to appear before the committee. In my opinion the public in Uganda has access to Parliamentary committees. This includes groups and individuals i do not see any major problem with this.

Week 3 - Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 26, 2009 2:52:37 AM PDT Author: Asad I agree with views of Ekky.All Committees are not open.Some times the situation arises when the meetings are held in-camera.same is the case in my country.But most of them like foreign relations Committee, Senate Functional Committee on human Rights,Senate interior Committee and most important is the PAC remain open for the media.these committees have performed well.

Do individuals and groups contribute to Committees Work in Uganda? Date: Mar 26, 2009 5:17:44 AM PDT Author: Tumu Ugandan participants have indicated that in Uganda, individuals and groups participate in committee deliberations. I agree with them except to make the following qualifications: 1. The law (Uganda Constitution Article 90.3.(a)and the Parliamentary rules of Procedures enjoin committees to summon any individual to appear before it to give evidence. The rules further require that any groups affected by a bill before the House have a right to be heard by a committee considering the bill. As my colleagues indicate, there is also a practice of advertising the meetings of committees in the press so that affected people can appear to give evidence. But the only problem is that the people targeted by committees of Parliament of Uganda tend to be the powerful, vocal or the mainstream, or the bureaucrats in the ministries. The marginal communities or the service consumers are never reached, except through intermediaries like NGOs, insurance companies, banks which are even based in the centre. Even when committees go to the field for public hearings, they mostly stop at district headquarters where good roads stop. Even when they advertise meetings of committees in the press, the most marginal can't respond due to logistical and acess limitations. During the budgeting processes, committees have tended to engage with business organizations, the traders, manufacturers, but rarely do committees engage with farmers ( even when agriculture is the backbone of Uganda's economy). My view is that when we talk of participation in legislative process as a democratic principle, we are not only talking about the rich and powerful actors, we should also consider the participation of the poor, marginal remote based communities as legitimate participants in the legislative process. Unfortunately, I do not have credible evidence that this latter category of Ugandans have been engaged by committees of parliaments. And I do not think the problem is logistical, it is rather due to lack of goodwill and appreciation that the marginalized also have useful views.

Week 3 - Do Committees Work in Your Country? Date: Mar 26, 2009 8:06:39 AM PDT Author: NAMAYANJA How committees work in Uganda In Uganda, parliament works and functions effectively through committees. As already indicated a number of committees exist including standing, sessional and adhoc committees. When executing their mandate the public is always encouraged to participate in the committee deliberations through a number of ways which include; appearing as witnesses before the committees, writing memoranda and presenting them to committees or petitions. Usually most to the committee proceedings are accessible to the media with exception of certain sensitive cases when committees work in camera. For a number of years now, the public has gained some form of confidence in the parliamentary committees as reflected in the rising number of petitions before different committees. Also important to note in the fact that parliament is now the most reliable place where aggrieved citizen converge peacefully to demonstrate their displeasure on any policy matter or activity by government seen as unsatisfactory. In short I would argue that indeed committees in Uganda have done their best to be effective, although at times committee is interfered with by political parties pushing for favorable recommendations. This has to some extent affected their effectiveness and sense of judgment to the displeasure of the public