The Speaker of the Delta House of Assembly, Mr. Dennis Guwor, has applauded the role of Committee Clerks in the administration of the legislation.
The speaker, who was represented by Deputy Speaker, Mr. Arthur Akpowowo said this while declaring open the two-day workshop organised by the State Assembly for Committee clerks on Monday in Asaba.
Guwor said that the committees established by the Houses of Assembly were the engine room of the House and were generally regarded as the House in action outside plenary.
”The functionality and success of the committees depend largely on the knowledge and skills of the Committee clerks, ” he said.
According to Guwor, the theme of this workshop: “Enhancing Legislative Oversight through Effective Documentation and Presentation” is very apt.
”The absence of uniformity has been observed in the internal working and reports by the committees.
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”Therefore, it has become expedient to have a template and manual to guide the clerks of the committees in their duties.”
Guwor emphasized that committee clerks had lots of responsibilities, ranging from meeting preparations, record keeping, bill tracking, witness coordination, report drafting, research support, procedural guidance, and administrative tasks, among others.
He noted that the objective of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of the committee clerks and to develop a template that would guide the secretariat work of committees of the Assembly.
”Therefore, I wish to implore all the participants to take this workshop seriously. It will be more of practical than theory.
“You are enjoined again to take full advantage of this rare opportunity provided for you by the leadership of the House. I wish you fruitful deliberations, ” he stated.
Earlier, the Clerk of the Assembly, Mr Otto Aghoghophia commended the Speaker and the leadership of the Assembly for providing the opportunity to train and enhance the skills of Committee Clerks.
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He noted that the role played by Committee Clerks in the House was essential to lawmaking.
”I wish to thank the Speaker for this initiative to strengthen the capacity of the Committee Clerks,” he said.
On his part, the Chairman and Lead Consultant of African Parliamentary Resource Centre, Dr John Mutu, said that the workshop would focus on preparing the clerks on how to record proceedings during meetings.
Mutu added that the workshop would also focus on enhancing the oversight of clerks on taking record of meetings during public hearings, budget sessions as well as how to capture and document during proceedings.
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”In our findings, we observed that most of the records of the previous assemblies were not transmitted to the Eight Assembly.
”In most cases, if you ask for five or six reports of the Assembly, you won’t find them. And when a new committee chairman comes in, he hardly have any record to work with.
”So this training will focus on how they can properly document proceedings of the House and critical decisions of the House so that when the next Assembly comes they would have documents to work with, ” he said.
