Mahoko aga Hon Ndaba Gaolatle aa nkgatlhileng thata. Madam Speaker, the institution that you now lead, this esteemed and prestigious Parliament, is weaker than it should be. You lead an institution that should have its own technical capacity to draft bills with swiftness and impact. It is strange, and even criminal, that the legislative wing of Government in Botswana has less legal capacity that many SMMEs I have worked with. It is stranger that an entire wing of Government does not have a budget or economic office, let alone a single economist, to provide an independent and equally authoritative assessment of the budget and its welfare impacts. This is abnormal by every measure, no matter how poor a country may deem itself to be or frugal its economic habits might be. [Even worse, legal counsel is appointed from the Executive] 22. Madam speaker, note these words, that the institution you lead is an entire branch or wing of Government. Its work, to make laws and provide oversight over an executive with many ministries, thousands of projects or assignments, and hundreds of thousands of employees means to do its work effectively, it should build the capacity to do so. As it stands, Parliament is top heavy – in other words, if we were to view members of Parliament as Directors of an institution, then in Botswana we have more directors, much more directors than the technical staff we lead. This is unheard of, anywhere in the world. If this is by design, to safeguard the power of the Executive to do as it pleases, then it is a mistake that will cost many generations of our people the lives they deserve. 23. The very Executive that thinks is protecting its power, will in fact lose its power, by missing out on the opportunity that a strong Legislature affords it – the opportunity to constantly check and improve itself towards excellence, the opportunity to be more creative and effective in building a prosperous nation. This is a simple principle of a child – lets call him broGovy – lets call his heard “parliament”, his heart is “executive” and his legs “the judiciary”. The fact is no matter how big broGovy’s heart is, or how strong his legs are, if his head or brains are missing, broGovy will achieve nothing, because broGovy is stunted. We need to fix this as a country, and we need to do it urgently. Madam, I propose to you that the Government of Botswana as a whole is stunted.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 18:32:04 +0000
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