By: Ilyasa Baa
The Institute of Governance Reform (IGR) has released a scorecard on the attendance and contributions of Members of Parliament (MPs) in debates singling out twenty MPs as having debated and attended almost all parliamentary seatings.
This scorecard or survey did not include the leadership of the House including the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker who gave helping hands to IGR to carry out their survey so as to serve as a motivator to MPs to attend and contribute meaningfully in Parliament. The exclusion of the leadership from the
Maiden scorecard was to prevent undue advantage on MPs being that the leadership of the House always set the agenda and platform for debates.
The newly released scorecard, according to the Parliamentary Monitory Officer, IGR, Ismael Saidu Kanu, was consultative noting that the draft of their report was taken to the leadership of Parliament before the final report was released this week. He informed this medium that the scorecard was based on the twenty seatings held in the last quarter of 2021 looking at punctuality; attendance and debate performance of MPs. He noted that they formed the Parliamentary Unit in August 2021 with the aim of effective monitoring of MPs as lawmakers. He said their maiden edition is open to criticisms as well as recommendations, noting that the scorecard serves as a motivating machine for MPs to take their function seriously. He said their data have lists of performing MPs, “those who do not come on time and those who do come in time”, the Parliamentary Monitoring Officer stated. He said the top twenty MPs were chosen based on their performances at debates and other criteria set by the Institute.
Interms of seating, PC. Bai Cole of Tonkolili district is regarded as the best attendee, seconded by SLPP’s Hon. Zainab Brima of Kailahun district followed by APC’s Hon. Dr. Mark Mamud Kalokoh of Bombalili district.
Owing to the scorecard, citizens have expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of their MPs citing that they were not voted into that space for anything else but for proper representation of their constituencies. James Williams in Lumley told this medium that there should be a proper automotive monitoring system in place to address the issue of lateness and absenteeism on the part of MPs.
