By Neo Kolane
The portfolio committee on the prime minister’s ministries and departments, governance, foreign relations and information cluster last week presented a report to the cabinet on a petition to revoke Member of Parliament (Amendment of Schedule) Regulations 2020.
The report states that the committee recommends speedy establishment of an independent parliamentary service commission; that will be able to determine the conditions of service of both MPs and staff, their remuneration and benefits and control parliament resources as a lasting solution.
This is after a group of concerned youth on March 23, 2021 released a press statement in which they condemned in the strongest of terms the adoption of Members of Parliament (Amendment of Schedule) Regulations of 2020 which granted legislators M5 000 tax free petrol allowance.
The youth had argued that the allowances were against the spirit of mileage system intended to ease transport-related hardships for legislators.
The concerned youth said the aforementioned regulations were adopted six months after they had condemned them. The regulations were facilitated by the prime ministers’ ministries and department portfolio committee of which the piece of legislation was referred to.
Upon scrutiny of the submission and the discussion, the committee observed that such allowances have attracted huge criticism from a large quarter of the public with the concerned youth taking the lead for reversal of the regulations.
The committee also observed that the youth’s recommendation to establish the independent commission was a welcome move by the committee as a mechanism for striking a balance between public perception on MPs remunerations and benefits and the MPs welfare.
