Abuja — SENATE yesterday said that it is unconstitutional and ethically wrong for the legislators to request help from Ministries , Departments and Agencies in carrying out their oversight function.

The Leader of the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba who made this known during the commissioning of the National Assembly ICT Research and Training Centre Said functions and powers of the National Assembly would be compromised if the support of the ministries, departments and agencies of government over-sighted are sought, the Senate has said.

in his words,"Though the legislative power of oversight is a constitutional one, its efficacy however derives from the legislature's moral authority to exercise it. Therefore, if the support of any knind is requested or obtained from the ministries, departments and agencies to be over-sighted in carrying out that responsibility, the legislature's powers and functions would have, ab initio, been compromised", he said.

Ndoma-Egba further stressed the need for the National Assembly to exploit the advances in information and communication technology to support its care functions of legislation, appropriation, oversight, advocacy and confirmations.

"Technology must be applied to modernize our operations and the institution itself to achieve greater efficiency, accountability to voters and our electoral constituencies and assess the performance of individual legislators", he said.

He also stressed the need for the legislature to abide by the Freedom of Information Act without which he said the legislature would lose its moral authority to oversight the executive