Auditing essential to strengthen parliamentary system: Shirin

Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury said that members of parliament should play an effective role in improving the quality of life of the people.

She said, “The parliamentary system should be made more efficient and stronger by ensuring parliamentary audit through the parliamentary standing committees.”

The Speaker expressed this opinion in the president’s speech at the ‘Stranding Legislatures’ session of ‘Fifteenth Workshop of Parliamentary Workshop and Parliamentarians’ organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Hull University, United Kingdom at Roxton College, according to a message.

Dr Shirin said that parliament is the centre of democracy. Parliament makes laws on the basis of which the executive functions. Parliament not only makes laws, but also supervises the activities of the executive department and provides necessary suggestions and recommendations through the committee system in a parliamentary democracy.

“The more powerful and efficient this system is, the more powerful and efficient the parliamentary democracy will be. Parliament’s main task is to make timely laws to ensure the state’s management and development and to ensure public interest and fulfill people’s hopes and aspirations,” she added.

The speaker said that the parliamentarians of Bangladesh Parliament are working for the development of their respective areas in addition to making laws. They are working in association with the local administration and stakeholders to deliver government services at the grassroots level.

The parliamentarians are working to increase the skills and awareness of education, health and employment among the people in particular.

Besides, the elected public representatives under the leadership of the speaker are building social movement creating widespread public awareness at the field level including ensuring the proper implementation of the law on the three issues of ‘prevention of child marriage, gender-based violence’, ‘improvement of maternal health, ensuring safe delivery and family planning’ and ‘multidimensional population and youth development’. Dr Shirin said that this role of Bangladesh Parliament can be practiced by other parliaments of the world.

At the session, Michael Youash from University of Toronto’s Legislative Role in Poverty Department and Muthanna Saari from Malaysian Parliament’s Research and Library Department presented a discussion over- ‘Parliamentary Stranding in South Africa: Budget oversight efficacy reform beyond popular congressional models’.