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Parly gobbles millions for ‘little’ work — Report

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THE 270 legislators who served in the Seventh Parliament gobbled an average of $307 740 for each sitting which translates to $123 million for the entire five-year term

THE 270 legislators who served in the Seventh Parliament gobbled an average of $307 740 for each sitting which translates to $123 million for the entire five-year term, a local think-tank Research and Advocacy Unit (Rau) has revealed.

VENERANDA LANGA, SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER

According to Rau, Parliament spent about $1 115 for the upkeep of each legislator whenever parliament sat.

The current eighth session, which has 370 legislators, is likely to gobble more than $165 million just to maintain MPs.

On average, each Parliament Session lasts for 80 days per year for five years, and MPs are booked at hotels, fly or drive to Harare for sittings and are paid $75 for each attendance of Parliament as well as a salary of plus or minus $1 000 per month.

“Some findings were not pretty,” the report reads. Among other things it emerged that juxtaposition of the average cost of maintaining an MP ($1 115 per sitting) versus time spent in Parliament (two hours and 30 minutes per sitting for the House of Assembly and one hour and 14 minutes per sitting for Senate) and attendance (on average 31/48 for the House of Assembly and 17/50 for Senate) in general is at great odds.

“While the House of Assembly sat for significantly longer periods, the Senate did not do so well. The longest sitting in the House of Assembly was six hours 58 minutes while that of the Senate was three hours and 38 minutes. In the period June 2012 to June 2013, the House of Assembly debated for 120 hours while the Senate only debated for 62 hours and 39 minutes.”

Rau senior researcher Rumbidzai Dube also said there was massive bunking of sittings by MPs, with the majority citing non-payment of their sitting allowances.

“Attendance in the House of Assembly is relatively good while in Senate the patterns of non-attendance are shocking as out of a possible 48 sittings in the House of Assembly the average attendance was 64, 9% and out of a possible 50 sittings in the Senate, the average rate of attendance was only 33%,” said Rau.

Currently, Parliament owes more than $750 000 in hotel bills accrued during the Seventh Parliament while each MP who served in the last Parliament is owed between $10 000 to $20 000 in sitting and fuel allowances.