Parliament to discuss adaptation of post legislative scrutiny

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has said that a recent recommendation by the Commonwealth Conference to adopt post-legislative scrutiny would be discussed further to see whether Uganda should adopt the practice.

Kadaga was on Thursday addressing journalists through a tweet chat on the recently concluded 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC).

Asked to give an overview of the CPC recommendations and those that are key for Uganda, she said that there was something interesting for Uganda to hear about post-legislative scrutiny since Parliament only scrutinizes Bills before they are passed into law.

“There are jurisdictions where they actually follow the law to see whether it is being implemented and also propose changes. It is a new area which I found interesting and I think we shall discuss it here and see, do we need to do it or we leave it and continue as we have been doing,” said Kadaga.

Further asked whether the post-legislative scrutiny would not infringe on the doctrine of separation of powers, Kadaga insisted that the practice was new to Uganda and that they would carry out further discussions about it.

The recommendation came up during one of the 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) at Speke Resort Munyonyo, were parliamentarians engaged in a workshop themed “Post Legislative Scrutiny-A Dimension of the Oversight Function of Parliament. How this is represented Within Different Political Systems.”

One of the keynote experts, Zoe Oliver- Watts the Director for Westminster Foundation for Democracy said that post-legislative scrutiny required resources and that in designing post-legislative scrutiny systems, parliaments should consider what they can contribute themselves and what they can ask others to contribute.

Drawing experience from the House of Lords and Commons in the United Kingdom, Zoe highlighted post-legislative scrutiny as largely undertaken by parliamentary committees and preceded by government review.

He also said that it was crucial that parliaments in commonwealth prescribe a procedure for post-legislative scrutiny.

The idea also received support from Nakasongola Woman MP Margaret Komuhangi who cited a need for a legal framework for parliament to carry out post-legislative scrutiny but Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa disagreed saying that whereas legislation is a parliamentary function, implementation was for government wondering how the doctrine of separation of powers would be respected if parliaments are given power to scrutinize laws passed.

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