Following several formal requests, Al Bawsala has been finally received for audition by members and non-members of the commission of rules of procedure and immunity on March 5th, 2013.
The scope of this audition is the amendment of rules of procedure that will be discussed in the plenary session on March 6th, 2013.
The audition has lasted more than 3 hours. Attendees were: Al Bawasala team, a number of media and the following National Constituent Assembly members:
-Haythem Belgacem
-Mahrzeya Laabidi
-Salha Ben Aicha
-Amel Ghouil
-Assia Naffeti
-Tarek Bouaziz
-Fathi Eltaif
-Jdidi Essbouîi
-Adel Ben Attia
-Jamel Bouajaja
-Rim Mahjoub
-Noomane Fehri
-Salah Chouaib
-Selim Ben Abdesslam
-Yamina Zoghlami
-Najla Bourriel
-Fadhel Moussa
-Habiba Turki
-Karima Souid
-Dalila Babba
-Mohamed Karim Krifa
During the first hour of the audition, the president of Al Bawsala, Mrs. Amira Yahyaoui, has presented a report with several statistics on the efficiency of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), absenteeism rate of the members during the votes for the law covering ISIE, a tentative timeline for different topics to be covered by the NCA and several recommendations to amend some articles of rules of procedure.
Al Bawsala’s proposed amendments aim to address the lack of transparency, delay of works and absenteeism during the voting sessions in plenary. (Please find below full report).
“After 22 plenary sessions, held between January 17th and February 25th, 2013, we have recorded an average of 73 minutes of delay per session, with a peak of 2 hours and 45 minutes of delay.
The average number of presence is 90 members out of 217; the most diligent members are around 213.
According to our records, the longest plenary session has lasted 8 hours, 2 times longer than the shortest sessions. Certain sessions though, did not exceed 55 minutes.
These mixed results could explain the never-ending discussions that the NCA is going through with not reached consensus so far.
The ministers-members are the less regular attendees of the plenary sessions during discussion of ISIE law, for example Mr Khalil Zaouia from Ettakattol.
The 10 most diligent members during ISIE law discussions are from Ennahdha party.
Mrs. Amira Yahyaoui President of Al Bawsala has recommended several amendments to article 126 of rules of procedure, for example to penalize any unjustified absence of the members by deductinga certain amount from their salary.
There is also an ongoing discussion to amend article 53 relative to parliamentary commissions.
The NCA needs to accelerate the rhythm of work otherwise the constitution would not be completed before January 2014 Mrs. Yahyaoui said.
The members of the above mentioned commission, whohas joined the plenary session later on, have not been very receptive to Al Bawsala audition.
While some of them have reacted positively to critics, others have considered this exercise as an intolerable interference in the internal NCA affairs stating that Al Bawsala’s report was far from being objective.
Member of NCA Mr. Salah Chouaïeb believes that the association has gone beyond its prerogatives as it’s now requesting a rendering of accounts.
Source : La Presse (http://www.lapresse.tn/06032013/63672/le-rendement-de-lanc-a-la-loupe.html)
Al Bawsala understands that some statistics like the absenteeism rate during ISIE law votes could not please the concernedNCA members, but we strongly condemn the false allegations against our objective and serious work and the veracity of ourdata.
We would like to remind that Al Bawsala team, unlike some NCA members, was present daily and at each session from more than a year to follow closely all NCA members’ activities and report them back to the Tunisian people.
The methodology we use to measure the attendance of the NCA members is based on the members’ presence during the plenary vote sessions only.
We understand that not all NCA members can be present in all plenary sessions; however, we cannot accept the high absenteeism rates of some of the members during those voting sessions. We strongly believe that this is in contradiction with their duties as deputies who have been elected to vote on behalf of Tunisian people.
Al Bawsala is planning to expand its monitoring activities to a regional and local level for both legislative and executive activities.
Al Bawsala’s main objective is to continue establishing accountability by promoting transparency and protection of fundamental rights of Tunisian people, especially the right to access information.
