BILL WATCH

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES SERIES 27/2018

[26th November 2018]

Open Committee Meetings Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th November
Meetings for Post-Budget Consultations

Neither the Senate nor the National Assembly will be meeting this week, but MPs will nevertheless be kept busy with the Post-Budget Consultations and preparing themselves for the Post-Budget Debate due to start in the National Assembly next Tuesday 4th December.   They have already had the benefit of a Post-Budget Seminar held yesterday.

Each Portfolio Committee will meet twice.  The first meeting will be to hear reactions to the Budget allocations from the Ministries supervised by the committee and stakeholders.  This meeting will be open to members of the public as observers.  At its second meeting each committee will prepare a report to be presented by the committee chairperson during next week‘s Budget debate in the National Assembly. 

Senators will be able to attend Portfolio Committee meetings of their choice, but will not hold separate consultative meetings.  This recognises that the Constitution assigns a lesser role to the Senate when it comes to the Budget – it can recommend to the National Assembly that allocations be amended, but it cannot itself make any amendments.