In its bid for continued capacity building to the Parliament of Sierra Leone, UNDP has supported a two-day workshop for the Department of Legislative Services on Monday 27th and Wednesday 29th July 2020 at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown to inculcate and strengthen the use and practice of Question Time; as an effective tool to hold the executive to account.
Director of the Department of Legislative Services, Karmoh K. Conteh thanked UNDP for supporting the workshop on a review of Parliamentary Questions. He recalled Mr. Speaker’s ruling on the use of Question Time instead of SO 23 which had been overused and bordering on personal explanations. In light of the rules of procedure, he said Question Time would provide constituents the opportunity to ask questions to Ministers through their Members of Parliament. He also said that the workshop is geared towards developing a template and a brochure to enhance Question Time as an effective tool to hold the executive to account.
Speaking on behalf of UNDP’s Country Representative, UNDP Technical Adviser to Parliament, Hon. Rosaline J. Smith registered UNDP’s continued support to Parliament and spoke about administrative reforms geared towards the smooth running of the Parliament of Sierra Leone. She said UK Parliament had effectively used question time to hold the executive to account. Adding question time would give sufficient insight to Ministers about agencies under their portfolios. She also recalled two incidences of question time relating to Ebola and education in the last Parliament. She said the outcome of the workshop would enable MPs to frame and ask questions to Ministers on matters of the state.
The facilitators are the Clerk of Parliament, Deputy Clerk II and the Director of Legislative Services in areas including nature, notice, contents and manner of asking questions, international best practices, development of template and brochure regarding questions to Ministers.
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