|
|
Mozambique: Assembly Complains About Finance
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
15 May 2008
Posted to the web 15 May 2008
Maputo
The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday complained bitterly that it does not have enough money, that deputies' working conditions are inadequate, and that the institution is poorly managed.
These lamentations came a day after the press and public were, once again excluded from parliamentary debates. As usual, the report from the Assembly's Petitions Commission was discussed behind closed doors. This aberrant behaviour has been defended by the majority Frelimo Party on the grounds of the right of citizens to their good name. (Apparently, there are fears that some of the petitions sent to the assembly might make false or defamatory claims against individuals).
24 hours after throwing the public out, the Assembly now wanted more money from that same public.
Both Frelimo and the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition agreed that parliamentary activities last year were constrained by a very tight budget, and that improvements must be made. But there is no agreement on precisely what steps should be taken.
In 2007, the Assembly had an initial budget of 342 million meticais (about 14.2 million US dollars). Later in the year it was allocated a further 60 million meticais to cover wage rises, air tickets, and increased fuel costs.
"Despite the increase in the budget, the money did not cover everything", lamented Frelimo deputy Vasco Moreira. Particularly problematic were the costs of air tickets (for deputies traveling to and from the provinces), fuel costs and printing (the Assembly uses vast amounts of paper). Moreira said the Assembly faces financial crises every year - sometimes before the end of the second quarter.
Renamo deputies complained about their wages, and demanded funeral benefits for deputies and their relatives, and increased subsidies for constituency work.
More seriously, they wanted to rationalize the Assembly's use of vehicles. "A great deal of money is spent on hiring vehicles, particularly for deputies' travel around their constituencies", said Luis Boavida. "To avoid this expenditure, my advice is to purchase rather than hire vehicles".
Boavida also protested against making deputies pay for their car insurance, when the vehicles in question belong not to them, but to the state. He called for a rational approach, with the Assembly signing a fixed contract with one insurance company for the entire five years of a legislature.
There were also calls for reducing the amount of paper used in the Assembly. Another Renamo deputy, Filipe Primeiro, called for all deputies to be issued with laptop computers, with Internet access, allowing them to read electronic versions of the Assembly's documents.
Renamo wanted parliamentary sessions to last longer (currently there are just two sittings of the Assembly, lasting for a total of 90 days), and with an agenda fixed in advance. This would avoid the current situation, whereby the session is being extended in an ad-hoc manner, because at the last minute the government asked the deputies to approve a revised version of the rule book for civil servants, the General Statute of State Functionaries (EGFE).
Boavida also claimed that "provocations" between the two parliamentary groups meant that deputies, instead of concentrating on the agenda, waste time "discussing matters that have nothing to do with the interests of the electorate".
|
The complaint is perfectly valid - but Boavida himself is one of the main offenders. Moreira retorted that in terms of "provocations" it was Renamo that needed to set its house in order.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
