By Crispina Cummings
Parliament on Friday invoked Standing Order 75 (S.O. 75) by asking journalists not to cover the on-going parliamentary committee proceedings and to leave the meeting.
This decision comes in the wake of the reading of and debate on the country’s 2014 budget which ended on Wednesday 4 December and is followed by the start of hearings by the appropriation subcommittee on supply during which ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) will be probed on their 2013 budget for their 2014 budget allocations. Approval of the latter budget ends today - 10 December 2013.
At the start of the sittings on Friday morning with six subcommittees, Subcommittee 1 was meeting in Committee Room 1 with the Audit Service when the chairman of the finance committee, Hassan Sheriff, MP, of Constituency 53 entered the room, apologised for disrupting the meeting and announced that parliament had brought into play S.O. 75 which states thus: "premature publication of content of select committee report: (i) evidence given before any papers forming part of the records of a select committee maybe printed for the exclusive information of the masses of the committee but shall not be published before the proceedings of the committee are reported to parliament." The MP said he was working on instructions.
The decision surprised many journalists especially when the ministry of finance and its partners had just completed a three-day training for them on reporting budget and budget-related activities.
According to the deputy minority leader, Ansu Kaikai, it was parliament’s prerogative to take such decisions and that queries on a matter like that should be channelled to the clerk’s office. However, members of the parliamentary press gallery tried to get the reaction of the clerk to the move but he could not be reached.
(C) Politico 10/12/13
