By Bida Elly David
The speaker of the Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly Jemma Nunu Kumba has warned the cabinet against halting bills that have already been passed urging them to speedily table them before the parliament for deliberation and enactment into law.
Speaking after the extra ordinary parliamentary seating yesterday, the speaker said that there were bills that the cabinet passed and failed to be tabled before the august house for consideration and deliberation.
“On the bills that have been passed by the Cabinet, the national election bill, the bank of South Sudan bill, the National Revenue Authority bill, the national security and petroleum bills are not yet received. We are urging the minister to make sure that these bills are brought to the parliament,” Nunu said.
Nunu said that the tendency of filing bills for deliberations gives hectic time for the parliament to perform their tasks yet the executive are contributors to the saga.
At the same juncture, the parliament also criticized R-JMEC for having delayed to present their report on the status of the agreement noting that there were many provisions within the agreement that the executive have violated demanding the parliament to be notified.
The debate over the R-JMEC report made parliamentarians to have divided thoughts as others suggested revision of the document before consideration and approval.
Some of the law makers said that the executive has passively contributed to delays of enactment of some of the pending bills by the parliament after ministry of justice presented them for deliberation at the Council of ministers’ level.
The lawmakers said that what the executive has been doing was the philosophy of delaying some of the provisions to ensure slow progress of the peace agreement.
The parliament resolved that the report presented by the R-JMEC ought to undergo scrutiny through the peace committee at the R-TNLA which at later stage will be tabled by the committee for deliberation aimed at determining its position of fairness.
Despite being a hectic debate as parliamentarians from different political parties involved into logical syllogism, both reached into consensus that R-JMEC plays the role of evaluating and monitoring the agreement as long as the parties to the accord commit to the provisions.
In response to the critics, Charles Tai the chair of R-JMEC said that the peace monitoring body has not been in favor of any party since their role was to ensure that parties to the agreement conduct themselves in accordance to paper signed. He noted that the agreement has given them powers to even evaluate the work of the parliament towards performing duties as rendered by the agreement.