Quorum crisis costs Bangladesh parliament Tk 1.25bn: Watchdog

As many as 152 hours and 17 minutes were wasted due to a lack of quorum in current parliament until its 18th session last year, Transparency International Bangladesh or TIB says.

The Germany-based corruption watchdog’s Bangladesh chapter said in its latest Parliament Watch report that the waste of time should amount to more than Tk 1.25 billion in financial terms.

According to the report published in Dhaka on Thursday, the five sessions of the 10th parliament had 76 working days last year, and 38 hours and three minutes of those were lost to quorum crisis.

Around half an hour was wasted daily on average, which can be expressed as a loss of over Tk 373 million daily or over Tk 163,000 per minute in financial terms, the TIB said.

In a previous report, it said the average waste of time in the ninth parliament was 32 minutes daily.

“Quorum crisis was always there and it continues. Half an hour lost to this crisis daily on an average is a worrying issue,” TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said.

“We are not saying this expense is a waste. We counted the financial value of the wasted time to give the people an idea about the loss,” he added.

The TIB report also said MPs used unparliamentary language in current parliament but the speaker did not take effective step.

Iftekharuzzaman said their idea about the ‘ineffective dual role’ of the opposition in parliament, the Jatiya Party, has not changed.

In the report, the TIB noted that the Leader of the Opposition Raushon Ershad herself asked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to drop the Jatiya Party ministers from her cabinet in order to 'save the image of her party'.

“Parliament lacks in playing the role to ensure accountability and establish good governance,” Iftekharuzzaman said.

The Jatiya Party’s role in parliament been been questioned for long. With the chief opposition BNP sitting outside parliament after its boycott of the 2014 election, Jatiya Party is the main opposition in parliament.

But some of its leaders are government ministers. For playing the role both in government and opposition, the BNP terms Jatiya Party 'Domesticated Opposition'.

Jatiya Party Senior Co-Chairman Raushon’s husband HM Ershad, the chairman, is the prime minister's special envoy.

The TIB questioned Ershad holding the post of prime minister’s special envoy and enjoying the facilities given to him.

It claimed it did not find any gazette or orders on Ershad’s appointment to the post.

“We tried government sources and the special envoy’s party, but could not find any gazette on his appointment,” Iftekharuzzaman said.

The TIB said it did not find Ershad playing the role a special envoy during his foreign trips.

The report also said parliament passed 24 Bills in the five sessions last year, but spent only around 23 and a half hours on these, which is 9 percent of the total time.

It observed the scope of people’s participation in passing laws was limited in these sessions as all the motions on checking public opinion were scrapped.

TIB Chairperson Sultana Kamal was also present.