As a week opens, Mondays start flaring with stories of ministers being summoned by either the national and state parliaments or the council of state. This could even trickle down to counties, payams and Bomas, had there been Houses of debate at the lower levels.

Yes, as an oversight body in a nation, the Parliament or Legislative Assembly has a full mandate to check on the performance of other institutions of the government.

However, though, this to an extent depends upon assignments or tasks entrusted by the very House of debate to these respective institutions. For instance, the Ministry of Health can’t present a list of new facilities constructed within its docket in a particular fiscal period if such activities were not planned or budgeted for.

Take Western Equatoria state as a case study, the finance minister was summoned over emolument of political post holders and salary for staff of defunct states of Maridi, Amadi, Gbudue and Tambura, only to get a passive reply.

The Minister of Cabinet Affairs and that of Labour, Public Services and Human Resource Development, were also arraigned for query, with no fruitful outcome.

Though the Lawmakers pinched the finance minister over delayed payment of the said beneficiaries, he wasn’t the rightful person for the right questions but diverted them to the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, instead. And the payroll for civil servants is prepared by the Ministry of Labour, Public Services and Human Resource Development, leaving the finance ministry at liberty.

Then, the Ministry of Labour, Public Services and Human Resource Development revealed having collected all the data on employees in the four defunct states but lacks financial tendon, to effect payment.

Here, comes the question to the lawmakers. To which coffers did they allocate the money to effect payment? Why then task a different entity for a role to be played by another? Or the panning wasn’t done.

Eminent reports from Cabinet Affairs ministry is that the council of ministers in August 2022, deliberation and approved, the memo for the emolument for constitutional post holders. It’s now pending to be tabled to the assembly, but was there a budgetary allocation to the effect? Don’t ask a minister to get fish from a mango tree, show him where there is water.

Recently, national minister of health sweated before the Legislative Assembly, on performance of the sector but a look at the budgetary share only exposes misery.

There is a common say that “neither a fool nor the wise can work without a tool” that we need to defer from or else the vicious circle oscillates, annually.