DEPUTY Speaker to National Parliament, Andrew Manepora proposes that a Parliamentary Standing Committee be established to oversee the implementation of the twenty year National Development Strategy (NDS) when debating the NDS in Parliament on Monday.
He said this is to keep governments in focus when preparing their budgets and to ensure that it reflects what is in the document.
Mr Manepora said Members of Parliament and governments will change, but a Standing Committee will ensure that the document survives over 20 years and will keep successive governments in focus to get the document implemented in its life’s span.
“That is why I propose the establishment of a standing Committee in Parliament to oversee the implementation of this document, because governments may change but a Standing Committee will always remain here to oversee how we implement this document in line with government priorities, programmes and budgets.”
He adds that the committee can ensure that National fiscal and monetary policies are reviewed each year against budget allocations to ensure that broad-based economic development are undertaken to facilitate growth in this economy.
Although Central Bank is doing monitoring of the monitory policy and Ministry of Finance is doing the fiscal policy, sometimes, the two are not well coordinated and do not go towards achieving the same goal.
“So having a Committee within Parliament to oversee that broad fiscal policy and monetary policy are harmonised to achieve Broadbased Economic Growth so that it facilitates equitable growths within the economy and achieve the NDS aim,” Hon Manepora explained.
The National Parliament of Solomon Islands now has ten Parliamentary Standing Select Committees in place.
Standing Select Committees are appointed under Parliamentary Standing Orders and are required to report their progress to parliament from time to time. – Source: Parliament Media
– Parliament Media
