Board of the House : Legislature (2016-2021):
Board of House of Representatives Holds Weekly Meeting on Tuesday, October 27th, 2020
Improving Control and Parliamentary Initiative in Legislation:
Main Topics of the Meeting
The Board of the House of Representatives held its weekly meeting on Tuesday, October 27th, 2020, under the chairmanship of Speaker of the House of Representatives Habib El Malki. The meeting was devoted to control, legislation, and the House’s work program.
As for control, the Board of the House discussed the interim record of the weekly sittings for questions, through which the House’s Board approved tackling three Government departments in each sitting to better cover the current developments and issues. The House’s Speaker also recalled the concerns expressed by the parliamentary groups and caucus concerning adding more interaction to the questioning system. In this respect, the Board has decided to prepare a project that answers these aspirations and present it during the meeting of the House's Speaker with the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus. It will be later presented for approval during the next meeting of the Board.
Besides, the House's Board has set the agenda of the sitting that will take place on November 2nd to cover the sectors of human rights, relations with the Parliament, employment and vocational integration, tourism, handicrafts, air transport, and social economy.
Concerning legislation, the Board has reviewed a Government bill on the regime of raw and manufactured tobacco and referred it to the Finance and Economic Development Committee. It has also referred an organic Government bill amending and supplementing Organic Law 02.12 on Senior Appointments to the Justice, Legislation, and Human Rights Committee.
Also, the Board of the House discussed the standing committees’ work program and record. In this context, it noted their efforts in examining the legislative texts referred to them and organizing their work program concerning discussing the draft sub-budgets that fall under their competence. The Board has also taken note of the positive and constructive atmosphere marking the discussion of the 2021 Draft Finance Bill within the Finance and Economic Development Committee.
As regards parliamentary bills, the House’s Speaker and the Board members highlighted the importance of the recommendations issued following the meeting between the Speakership of the House, the Minister of State in Charge of Human Rights and Relations with the Parliament, and the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus. The participants reaffirmed the importance of the parliamentary bills, the attention they deserve, and the imperative of respecting the legislative procedures related to them and the monthly appointment set out in Article 82 of the Constitution, which had been set to take place on the last Tuesday of November.
Besides, the Board reviewed the list of the parliamentary bills to which the Government has responded. It has also commended the high quality of the bills elaborated by the House members in different economic, social, human rights, and environmental areas of public affairs.
As regards exploratory missions, and the keenness of the House to fortify this control mechanism that is of utmost importance in field control of public institutions, law enforcement, and societal issues in general, the Board prepared draft bylaws that regulate the means to perfectly utilize these missions through defining the procedure of requesting exploratory missions, the areas and conditions for running them, their structure, the commitments of their members, their working methods, and the requirements for their reports. As stated by the House's Speaker and the Board members, these draft bylaws will be the object of consultation between the different House organs to achieve a collective consensus over them.
As concerns the relation of the House of Representatives to the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, the House reviewed the remarks and proposals of the latter regarding the Government bill on the National Authority for Probity, Prevention and Fight against corruption, elaborated earlier upon a request of the House of Representatives.