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Speaker,House of Reps Inaugurates a 20-Man Independent Needs Assessment Committee

Speaker,House of Reps Inaugurates a 20-Man Independent Needs Assessment Committee
A 20-Man independent NEEDS Assessment Committee has been inaugurated by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara. The Committee which is chaired by Clement Nwankwo, Coordinator of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre(PLAC), has been mandated to carry out a comprehensive NEEDS Assessment study to determine whether the National Assembly is over funded or underfunded. 

At a brief ceremony on Friday, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara declared that this was in line with its commitment in the Legislative agenda, as the 8th National Assembly, to set up an independent Committee, comprising – Civil Society Organizations, professional bodies with support of International Development Partners, to determine the actual requirements of running and maintaining the institution of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly.     

Its terms of reference include the determination of what it would cost the House of Representatives and the National Assembly to conduct Public Hearings on the Bills and other legislative measures passed by both Chambers, including live coverage of these activities; what it would cost to communicate all its proceedings and activities to its different constituencies and the general public; what it would cost to build, equip, and maintain all infrastructure in the National Assembly, like offices of the bureaucracy, Members, Committee Rooms, Hearing Rooms, modernization of Chambers of both Houses, electronic communications infrastructure, e-parliament facilities etc.

The Committee is also mandated to find out what it would cost the National Assembly to conduct proper policy and budget oversight on Executive branch including all its Agencies in order to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste; what it would cost to take important legislative measures down to the grassroots, to members’ constituencies and allow them maintain Constituency Relations; what it would cost the National Assembly to involve the CSOs and other citizens groups in Lawmaking, Representation and Oversight activities of Members and Committees; what would it cost to maintain the Agencies of NASS such as NILS, National Assembly Service Commission, the NASS Bureaucracy, NASS Budget Office, and Public Complaints Commission; what would it cost to continue to build the capacity of Lawmakers as well as facilitate their official activities both locally and Internationally.

The Committee, which is expected to submit its report within 3 months is at liberty to make a comparative study of the cost of running the legislature in other relevant jurisdictions.  

The National Institute for Legislative Studies, (NILS) would serve as the Secretariat of the Committee. 

This is coming against the backdrop of wide speculations regarding the remuneration of lawmakers and the utilization of its budgetary allocations.















 
  

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