The Office of the ANC Chief Whip, 3 February 2015 Executive Accounting to Parliament The Office of the ANC Chief Whip notes the discussions and decisions regarding the priorities of the business of Parliament during this year by the National Assembly Programming Committee recently. The discussions included a suggestion by some opposition parties to increase the number of times the President should appear before the House for response to oral questions this year. With the rules stipulating that the President should appear at least four times a year, and having been prevented from responding to all questions in his previous appearance, a request was made that the President should appear at least five times this year. This request is being considered by the Speaker in consultation with the Presidency and a decision would be made in due course. However, an emphasis ought to be made on the fact that appearance for oral reply to questions is NOT the only mechanism provided for the President to account to Parliament and the nation. The overemphasis on this one form of accounting, to the exclusion of many other equally important parliamentary accounting mechanisms, is often deliberately made to drive inaccurate perceptions and falsehoods that the President does not take parliamentary accounting seriously. Further, this narrative often opportunistically isolates the President from the rest of the Executive in order to take cheap personal shots at him. This is despite the Constitution clearly articulating that members of the executive are accountable to Parliament both individually and collectively. Throughout this misinformation drive, the fact that disruption by certain MPs is the reason the President could not fully carry out his task on August 2014 is conveniently underplayed or omitted. We wish to put on the record the fact that the Executive, led by the President, accounts to parliament in the following ways which ensure that any issues that MPs would want to raise receive the necessary attention: . Oral Questions to the President in the National Assembly once a quarter and the National Council of Provinces once a year. . Written Questions to the President from members in both houses of parliament throughout the year. . Oral Questions to the Deputy President every fortnight . Written Questions to the Deputy President from members in both houses of parliament throughout the year. . Oral and written questions to Ministers. . Appearance of departments before committees in parliament. The State of the Nation Address by the President, the budget vote debate of the Presidency and Departments as well as the annual address by the President in the NCOP also provide formal and scheduled opportunities for engagement and accounting to Parliament by the Executive. The President and his executives have since 2009 fulfilled these important accounting obligations without fail. It is therefore important that facts are distinguished from fiction when these matters are debated in public. Issued by: The Office of the ANC Chief Whip Enquiries: Moloto Mothapo, 082 370 6930 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
