Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
24 June 2009
Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday took its first ever step to deal with conflicts of interest involving parliamentary deputies.
The Assembly passed unanimously the first reading of amendments to the Statute of Deputies, making it compulsory for deputies to declare any personal or family interests they may have in matters under debate.
The amendments state that a conflict of interests exists if a deputy, or any of his or her close relatives are personally involved in any business which will be affected by a law or resolution passed by the Assembly, or work in any capacity for a company or other collective body the operations of which may be modified by such a law or resolution.
In such cases the deputy concerned must announce, either in writing or orally, before speaking on the matter, his or her interest in the question under debate.
The amendment does not establish a register of deputies' interests, and it does not even forbid deputies with a conflict of interests from voting on the matter. But it does at least make it compulsory to inform the Assembly, and the public at large, that the conflict exists.
In introducing the amendments, the chairperson of the Assembly's Legal Affairs Commission, Ali Dauto, said that Commission members from the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition had opposed measures to deal with conflicts of interest. However, during the debate in the Assembly plenary Renamo did not raise the issue, and the amendments were passed by consensus, without the need for a vote.
The amendments also clarify the procedures for lifting parliamentary immunity, in cases where deputies are accused of crimes. Unless caught in the act of committing a crime, a deputy may not be arrested or detained without the consent of the Assembly.
If a deputy is charged with a crime, the Legal Affairs Commission must give its opinion as to whether the lifting of immunity is warranted, and the final decision is then taken by the Assembly's governing board, its Standing Commission.
Any criminal case against a deputy must be prosecuted by one of the Assistant Attorney-Generals, and heard by a Supreme Court judge.
The amendments also make it clear that nobody can be both a deputy and hold any municipal office, or any leadership position in the executive or judiciary. This had not been stated categorically before, but had been the Assembly's practice. Thus the two deputies of the ruling Frelimo Party who were elected as mayors in the November municipal elections, promptly resigned their parliamentary seats.
The amendments grant one additional privilege to deputies - the state will pay for third party insurance on their vehicles, which the Finance Ministry calculates will cost a million meticais (about 38,000 US dollars) a year.
During the brief debate on the amendments, there were predictable demands for further privileges. Two Frelimo deputies called for deputies' wages to be free of income tax, while Antonio Muchanga of Renamo demanded "decent accommodation" during parliamentary sittings for those deputies not normally resident in Maputo.
But none of these demands has yet been put to a vote, though there may be attempts to amend the bill in committee before it comes back to the plenary for a second and final reading.
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