Parly urged to go paperless to cut costs
THE Zimbabwean Parliament has been urged to go paperless to save costs on printing bulk Order Papers and reports of Parliamentary Portfolio Committees for 270 MPs in the National Assembly and 80 MPs in Senate.
MPs from the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget and Finance suggested in their recent report on their benchmarking visit to Kenya that Ipads and tablets to access such documents were the way to go.
Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda last Thursday said there were plans for Parliament to operate virtually during the lockdown period.
Zimbabwean parliamentarians got Ipads, but they are yet to use them to access their Order Papers and several other printed documents like Bills that are printed in bulk and placed in their pigeon holes for them to study and contribute to debate in the House.
The Ipads might be useful for parliamentary virtual meetings.
“The Budget and Finance Portfolio Committee noted that the Parliament of Kenya has gone paperless since both Houses were now computerised. All MPs receive the Order Paper and Hansard on tablets that are fixed on their tables in the chamber,” the committee report read.
Speaking with NewsDay, Budget and Finance Portfolio Committee chairperson Felix Mhona added: “It is imperative that the Parliament of Zimbabwe should now go paperless in order to save costs. A lot of money will be saved in terms of printing documents for MPs in the House.”
Other observations by the Budget and Finance Portfolio Committee were that there is full-time broadcasting of parliamentary debates and other business at the Kenyan Parliament.
“There is a Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit within Parliament (Kenya), which operates full-time to broadcast all parliamentary business to the various radio and TV stations on a commercial basis. The unit is manned by staff of Parliament.
“There is a media centre within the precinct of Parliament, which is fully furnished and equipped, where the media people use to prepare their stories for publication,” the report read.
Parliament of Zimbabwe sittings are only broadcast by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesdays in the National Assembly and Thursdays in Senate.
Journalists of online publications also live stream committee sittings at their own expense.
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda has, however, hinted that the new Parliament building being constructed in Mt Hampden would have a fully-equipped Parliament Broadcasting Unit and a media centre.
Other good issues that were observed at the Parliament of Kenya include the biometric registration of MPs at both Houses, which made it easier to register attendance of MPs in the House, as well as disability friendly infrastructure with seats in the House specifically constructed to accommodate MPs with disabilities.