Week 5 - Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 6, 2009 9:07:07 AM PDT Author: Brooke Are parliamentary staff and public servants sufficiently safeguarded in carrying out their duties and in giving their advice and assistance to parliament, its officers and staff? What methods are used to protect them? Brooke Prater WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program parliamentarystrengthening@gmail.com

Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 6, 2009 9:30:07 AM PDT Author: Moderator While the clerk or secretary general of parliament is especially protected under the constitution in most countries, all servants of parliament have some form of protection for themselves in carrying out their duties. Obstruction in the course of performing duties will be treated by parliament as contempt of the house, whether this be by threat, actual physical restraint or in any other form. Parliament is the sole judge of its procedure and its actions and they cannot be questioned in any court. There have been are cases in Commonwealth countries where the judiciary and the parliament have not seen eye to eye and in all of them the speaker has been on the alert to protect the rights of parliament. Do participants know of cases of this type in their countries or elsewhere? Non-parliamentary public servants may occasionally have to carry out an instruction of parliament and they would then be afforded the same protection by parliament. Even a member of the public who is called upon to give witness to a committee would be similarly protected. The other side of the coin is that if our hypothetical public servant or member of the public were not to carry out an instruction or obey a summons from parliament, they would be in contempt of the house. You may like to comment on how safe parliamentary staff and and their colleagues in other parts of the public service, senior as well as junior, feel in carrying out their duties in their parliaments or whether they think greater safeguards are required.

Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 6, 2009 2:33:15 PM PDT Author: Mister To my opinion, safeguarding parliamentary staff should be considered one of the values for good governance and human rights. What I want to highlight here, is that some parliamentary staff should not be privilged than the others due to party ideologies. At the same time, all parliamentary staff should be considered as instruments for change and they represent public interest. It is needless to consider those members whom the government thinks will contribute to their consolidation of executive power. Indeed this thought is only a way to give room for the ruling government to continue to stay in power without thinking of organising free and fair elections. As such some parliamentarians are often seen as a threat against the incument government; consequently they face some threats from the ruling government. Truth pressed on earth shall rise again because truth is nothing but truth itself

Week 5 - Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 7, 2009 11:40:06 PM PDT Author: ekky Article 97 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda states that the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, Members of Parliament and any other person participating or assisting in or acting in connection with or reporting the proceedings of Parliament or any of its committees shall be entiltled to such immunities and Privileges as Parliament shall by law prescribe. The Parliament powers and Privileges Act provide several privileges to Members of Parliament, they include:immunity from legal proceedings, freedom from arrest for civil debt during session, exercise of civil process, entry to Parliament,regulation of admission to Parliament, order for withdrawal of strangers, power to order attendance witnesses inter alia but these do not automatically apply to staff. Section 14 is specifically intended to protect both staff and MPS it states that "no person employed to take minutes of evidence before Parliament or any committee of Parliament shall give evidence elsewhere in respect of the contents of such minutes of evidence or the contents of any document laid before Parliament or any such committee, as the case may be, or in respect of any proceedings or examination held before Parliament or such committee, without the special leave of Parliament first obtained.This protects staff from unnecessarily providing evidence. Am however of the opinion that staff need further immunity from legal proceedings. section 2 of the Act which only applies to Members should have been extended to staff since they provide advise to MPS. It reads as follows:" No civil or criminal proceedings maybe instituted against any Member for words spoken before or written in a report to Parliament or to a committee or by reason of any matter or thing brought by the Member in Parliament or a committee by petition, bill,motion or otherwise. In conclusion there is protection provided to staff under the Parliament powers and privileges Act, it should however be broadened to be more effective since staff advise Members, do research and draft Parliamentary reports.

Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 7, 2009 11:58:33 PM PDT Author: augu In Rwanda, the Parliamentary staff is the public servants affected to Parliament. There is no special treatment regarding parliamentary staff, because all parliamentary staff are sent to parliament by the Ministry of Public Servant and when the staff failed to fulfill its duties it is returned to the Ministry of Public Servant. Actually the Rwanda Public service commission was put in place and among its duties is to examine the problems presented by the public servants. So, parliamentary staff as others public servants perform their duties without any special protection comparing to others. If he is required to give evidence he do it and if he/she has the problems because of that, he/she can go to the court or other organs which handle the inquiries of public servant such as public service commission.

Week 5 - Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 9, 2009 2:16:05 AM PDT Author: Asad The staff in the parliament is carries out its duties not for any personal gain but to uphold the oversight of the parliament and its committees.They are fully protected under the rules.The staff is well aware of the fact that the duties which they are performing are far more different from the duites of a staff of the ministry or department.As for as Pakistan is concerned, there is no pressure on them.They fully protected.

Protection of Parliamentary staff and other public servants Date: Apr 9, 2009 6:33:12 AM PDT Author: Tumu For a parliament to be effective, it requires an effective support services provided by competent, professional and impartial staff. The problem however is having such a caliber of staff, well motivated and above all safeguarded from harrassment. By virtue of the political climate in any parliament, harrassment of staff, both explicit and implicit is hard to avoid. Even in situations where the parliament is composed of non-party members like was recently the case in Uganda from 1986-2005, there are always opposed forces. Provision of professional technical support services to these opposed forces is always problematic, for the technical staff will most likely be seen to be favouring one group or the other. Some of the parliamentary staff I have in mind are both those directly employed to facilitate parliament like clerks, researchers, lawyer, analysts. But there are also those public servants whose work complements to that of parliament, or those who report to Parliament. In the case of Uganda, these include staff of the office of the auditor general, staff of public procurement office, Human rights office, Ombudsman, etc. When these taff are not secure in their work, or they are not held in high regard by members of the public and MPs themselves, then the effectiveness of parliament in terms of its outputs and outcomes will be in jeopardy. such a scenarion is not healthy for the parliament if it is to flourish. The cure therefore is to design protective mechanisms that will safeguard the staff when executing their functions. Such measures can be legal, political, administrative or self disciplne on the part of the staff. My colleague from Uganda has raised the legal protections created under the constitution and the National Assembly Powers and Privileges Act. Staff of parliament are protected. Their dismissal procedures are complex. There are numerous appeals procedures. Their salary benefits cannot be simply reduced. This also applies to other public servants who support parliamentary work. However, these legal protections alone are not sufficient. Other administrative protections need to be designed. For instance, in Uganda, all staff act on behalf of the clerk to Parliament. They report to the clerk, and their performance appraisals are managed at the technical levels. Working on behalf of the clerk is a big protection to staff. Such administration protection however can only happen when the clerk is fully aware of the vulnerability of staff who work in a politically polarised parliament. In Uganda, the protection of staff by the clerk is emboldened due to the fact that the clerk is not appointed by the Parliamentary commission, but by the President in consultation with the Public service commission. Team work among the staff can also greatly provide protection of parliamentary staff. Another important safeguard is the conduct of individual members of staff and other public servants. The way they conduct themselves. The technical and professional confidence with which they provide support to MPs will earn staff the admiration rather than suspicion of the members of the public and MPs. Overall, for parliamentary staff to be protected and safeguarded, they need to steer away from partisan politics. In the case of Uganda, this is not simple. On the one hand, according to the Code of conduct and ethics of public service, staff are to exhibit loyalty-i.e. commitment to the policies and programmes of government, of course the ruling government (not the opposition government) and on the other hand, are supposed to exhibit impartiality when giving support services, including to members of the opposition!

Week 5 - Safeguarding Parliamentary Staff and Public Servants Date: Apr 9, 2009 8:35:27 AM PDT Author: DOCTOR In cameroon,the staff of parliament dont have any special safeguards because they are governed by the labour code and special rules and regulations applicable to the other civil servants and workers of the country. They are mostly recruited directly depending on the needs of parliament and on secondment if it is really imperative. However,the are slight differences between the advantages given to other civil servants and those of parliament especially when it comes to remunerations.Those of the staff of parliament are higher than those of the other public service. Besides,parliamentary staff are clamouring for increase wages because of the nature of their job and the fact that they are obliged to work and live through out in the capital city where live is very expensive.

Reporting Parliamentary Proceedings Date: Apr 9, 2009 6:17:01 PM PDT Author: Jackée Almost 20 years after the first television cameras were introduced into the Parliament Chamber, proceedings are now broadcasted live. This occurred because of the report of a joint select committee which considered the matter of live broadcast of the debates and committee proceedings. However, specific recommendations were proposed by the committee with respect to reporting. Due to these recommendations our Parliament set up the “Parliament Channel” and “Parliament Radio station”. The other media houses are normally given a feed from which they do their reporting. This could lead to the strengthening of our country’s democratic institution and will provide citizens with the opportunity to listen and watch as Parliamentarians make decisions that directly affect their lives. The media is therefore very effective in this country.

Parliamentary Staff Date: Apr 9, 2009 11:32:12 PM PDT Author: srm Indian Constitution has recognized the need for a safeguards of Parliamentary Staff from the pulls and pressure of the executive wing of the Government. The constitution provides set up of two separate Secretariat for the two Houses of Parliament and both the Secretariat function under the supervision of the concerned Presiding Officer. Presiding officer of the concerned House is the decision making authority for the Secretariat matters. In India the Secretariat follows separate rules and regulations and conditions of Services etc. The rules and regulations, office orders issued by the central government for its staff is considered by the Parliament Secretariat and adopted. Both the Houses have a Joint Recruitment Cell and the recruitment of Staff is totally free from Union Public Service Commission. Parliamentary Staff while serving for the Parliament are covered under Parliamentary Privilege.