Overview report of Parliament launched

As Speaker of Parliament, I believe transparency is important and one of our roles as custodians of the Parliament is to record and highlight the important work of this institution we serve.

These were the sentiments shared this morning by the Speaker Hon. Dr Jiko Luveni while launching the Report titled  ‘An Overview of the Fijian Parliament 2014-2018’.

“This report is part of my commitment as Speaker to open the doors of Parliament to the people and provide as much statistical information as possible to highlight how the Parliament has operated during the 2014-2018 Parliament term.”

“It’s a critical aspect of our accountability, robust democracy and a healthy parliament,” Speaker said.

Some of the interesting figures from this summary and other statistics include:

• 144 sitting days during the Parliament term with over 160 Bills approved by the Parliament;
• 2500 questions and supplementary questions in the chamber over the term of parliament;
• over 1400 Standing Committee meetings have been held with more than 120 Committee Reports tabled in Parliament;
• over 2600 appearances by individuals before Parliament Committees; and
• more than 700 written submissions by citizens were made to the Committees during the Parliament term.

“These statistics not only highlights the instrumental role of the Fijian Parliament in its legislative, oversight, budgetary and representative role during the 2014-2018 Parliament term, it also provides important information that will assist the Parliament staff to review the way we work and the support we provide in the next Parliament, particularly on how we can monitor the engagement of Members of Parliament and the parliamentary committees about the implementation of the SDGs.”

“I take this opportunity to thank the UNDP Fiji Parliament Support Project that has provided invaluable support to the Parliament during the 2014-2018 term. Your support, which has been funded through the generous contribution from the Governments of New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the European Union, has allowed this generous contribution from Parliament to grow and flourish during the term,” Hon. Dr Luveni added.

UNDP Country Director Pacific Office and Head of Pacific Regional Programme Policy Bakhodir Bukhanov congratulated the Speaker for opening the doors of Parliament and providing, in a succinct and accessible way, information on the way that Parliament has functioned.

“Delivering the 2030 agenda depends on good governance, which includes the responsiveness and accountability of institutions at all levels. Sustainable Development Goal 16 outlines the need for institutions to be open, transparent, effective and inclusive. This publication that is being launched today is central to all of these issues.”

“While many people will have different views on the quality and content of debates and discussions in Parliament, this publication contains data and statistics that can measure the way the legislature in Fiji has functioned,” Mr Bukhanov said.

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Full report can be accessed on –  https://bit.ly/2PGaypP