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6.5. Committees Process

Committees Process

Committees are created by Parliament to study and report on specific areas of concern. Every committee has a lifespan, members, and defined objectives. Some committees are formed to coordinate with other committees. Normally an MP is a member of only one committee. Parliamentary Standing Orders govern all proceedings in committees. Committees are usually assigned clerks and researchers. Parliamentary committees perform functions which the full House itself is not well fitted to perform, such as carrying out investigations, considering reports, hearing witnesses, sifting through evidence, discussing matters in detail, etc. Committees contribute to better administration and policy making through their reports and recommendations. The system should store information about all parliamentary committees. Listed below are various primary functionalities attributable to Parliamentary committees, the activities of which shall be automated and integrated with the PIS to enhance the role of the committees in fulfilling their task. They include, but not limited to: Maintenance of Commission/Committee Membership; Reservation of Venues; Scheduling Meetings; Report Management; and Knowledge Base.

Data model

The following functions will be required:

Registration of Committee members

Political parties are offered a number of seats within the committees. Some seats are given by virtue of position while other by proportional representation. The system will allow people fulfilling the following criteria to be registered as committee members:

1. Elected Members of Parliament
2. Nominated Members of Parliament
3. The Speaker and deputy Speaker of the National Assembly

Note: Former MPs cannot be members of a committee. The following information will be captured:

Assign Clerks to Committees

Each committee will be assigned at least 2 clerks. The system will assign clerks to the various committees from the pool of registered committee clerks. The following information will be captured about the clerks.

Assign Researchers to Committees

The system will allow registered researchers to be assigned to the registered committees that indicate that a researcher is required. Any number of researchers should be assigned, however an alert should be issued if a certain number is exceeded. The system shall also permit changes in the assignments. A researcher may be assigned to more than one committee. The following information will be captured:

Committee Lifetime

Dissolving a Committee The system will continually monitor the dissolution date of each committee. The system will send notification to the Chairperson and clerk(s) of the committee 'n' months prior the dissolution date (where 'n' is parameterised). This will enable them to seek an extension of the committee if necessary. The personnel to be notified will be pre-defined in the system. If no extension is obtained by the dissolution date, the system will de-register all members to the said committee and dissolve the committee. The committee details to be considered for dissolution are indicated in the table below. Once a committee is dissolved, the system will not allow future transactions relating to this committee.

Extending a Committee's lifetime Once the system has given notification that a committee is about to be dissolved, a decision to extend the life a committee may be made. The chairman of the committee will submit a request to the House to extend the life to the committee. Should the House agree, the committee is given an extension for a specified period The system will adjust the dissolution date of the committee through a parameter and retain all members, and/or make the requisite changes, where necessary. An audit trail of the adjustment will be maintained by the system.

Venue Reservations

The chairperson of a committee sets the date and time of the next committee meeting. This is communicated to the committee clerk for internal management. The following information about the required venues and their reservation details will be made available to the clerk.

The system will send out notification to the venue contact person as soon as the request is made. Each request will then be evaluated. If the request is acceptable the venue personnel will update the system confirming the request. Notification confirming the same will be automatically sent by the system to the committee clerk. If the request needs to be modified, the venue personnel will contact the committee clerk and agree on what services can be offered. The clerk will then update the system accordingly.

Scheduling Meetings

Once the venue has been confirmed, the committee clerk will generate notifications to all members of the committee giving the following information:

1. Date of Meeting
2. Time of Meeting
3. Venue
4. Agenda for the Meeting

All notifications will be on standard templates. Committee members will be required to confirm attendance at least n days (where n is parameterised) prior the meeting. Members of the committee will send notification confirming attendance. N-1 days before the meeting, the system will check the number of confirmations against the minimum quorum required to conduct a meeting. If the number of confirmations is less than the quorum required, the system will send notification to the committee chairperson and clerk(s) requesting the meeting be rescheduled. If the request to reschedule is granted, the system will perform the following:

1. Update the venue reservation status to 'cancelled.'
2. Update the catering service request to 'cancelled'
3. Send notification to both the catering and venue contact personnel notifying them of the cancellation.

Communication and Document Movements

Information sharing between the committee members is of paramount importance. Document sharing, accessibility without geographical boundaries, various modes of communications like electronic mailing, direct accessing etc is a necessity. Where committees interact with various individuals and institutions, document storage and archiving etc need be provided. A committee shared workspace should be made available to the Committee members on the system through which they can collaborate and share information/documents.

Committee meeting Minutes

Committee proceedings are very important to Parliament and therefore they should be captured and documented for future reference. The recording and documentation process in this case should be in the same manner as the production of the Debate Records (Hansard). The system should have pre-defined templates for capturing minutes of the meeting. Review of minutes, objections and amendments to the minutes, notification to all concerned on all the above activities etc. should be supported. All amendments should be documented and archived.

Committee Reports

Committee reports are compiled by the committee clerks to give a report of the deliberations and conclusions of the committee about the issue at hand. The finalisation of the Committee Report is done through a revision process that involves the committee members and may also include public/stakeholders' feedback, the system should support this revision process by providing a shared workspace, facilities to annotate documents and automatic consolidation of annotations and changes required. The committee report should be availed to Parliament and (if the standing orders allow) other interested parties in the formats previously discussed. The published committee reports can be made available via a web site, paper, CDs etc. If committee clerks prepare the committee report then the dedicated editor referred to in the transcribing of the Debate Reports (Hansard) needs to be provided for each clerk. The application should store the following metadata on the committee reports:

Next: 6.6. PIS Parameter Previous: 6.4. Parliamentary Business