Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Hon Yakubu Dogara, has insisted that the National Assembly has oversight
powers over the executive.
He made this statement while
delivering a keynote address at a 2-day summit on Intergovernmental/Party
Relations and the Budget Reform Process for sustainable development in Nigeria
in Abuja on Tuesday.
Dogara said: ”Over the years,
legislative oversight has been seen as more adversarial than cooperative.
”However, in conducting
oversight, the principles of co-operative government and intergovernmental
relations must be taken into consideration, including the separation of powers
and the need for all spheres of government and all organs of State to exercise
their powers and perform their functions in a manner that does not encroach on
the functions of other arms.
”Seen in this light, the
oversight function of the Legislature complements rather than hampers the
effective delivery of services with which the executive is entrusted.”
Dogara said the outcomes and
recommendations of oversight undertaken by the legislature should be eagerly
received, studied and implemented by the executive as a measure of
accountability, citing an instance where the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
requested for the report of the probe carried out by the House Adhoc Committee
on Customs and Excise in the 6th Assembly under his leadership and started
implementing the recommendations even before the report was adopted.
“I can give personal testimony
that as chairman, House Ad-Hoc Committee on Customs, the report of the House
investigation we conducted was requested for by him personally and he started
to implement the recommendations,” he recalled.
“Each arm of government must
take concrete steps to realize cooperative government by fostering friendly
relations, assisting and supporting one another, informing one another of, and
consulting one another on, matters of common interest, co-ordinating their
actions and legislation with one another; and adhering to agreed procedures.
“The various ministries, departments
and agencies (MDAs) are constitutionally required to account to the
legislature, and they should always avail parliament of the complete picture on
performance of the functions assigned to them as the consideration of the
annual report of the MDAs alone may not give the complete picture of the
performance of the relevant functions.”
He added that said failure by
these MDAs to adhere to resolutions of the legislature in accordance with
constitutionally assigned powers, will lead to a high risk of zero budget
allocation to them since appropriation is one of the tools it can use to enforce
compliance.
”On the issue of legislative
resolutions, one of the tools available to parliament in enforcing its
Resolutions is the power of the purse as provided for by the 1999 Constitution
as amended.”
“Any MDA that persistently
disrespects a well-informed Resolution of Parliament may confront the power of
parliament over its budget.. Over the years, legislative resolutions have been
taken as merely advisory and hence enjoy a low level of compliance by the
executive branch.
”I wish to strongly make the
point that whereas some resolutions of the legislature are expressions of the
will and views of the legislature, they most often do have practical, political
and legal consequences. Resolution is also a mechanism through which the
executive obtain expressions of opinion of important stakeholders to assist it
in framing its policies.
”In jurisdictions like the USA,
UK and India, parliamentary resolutions are taken seriously and level of
implementation reported back to parliament. We should consider adopting these
models in Nigeria.”
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