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MPs now okayed to table parallel private members` bills
2008-03-28 10:18:15
By Patrick Kisembo
The National Assembly has opened doors for parliamentary standing committees and individual legislators to present alternative bills alongside government bills tabled in the House for deliberation in a move aimed at consolidating democracy.
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Anne Makinda disclosed this in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday when launching an Open University of Tanzania (OUT) legal aid clinic.
She said this was part of parliamentary reforms aimed at revitalising the operations and conduct of the National Assembly, thus improving efficiency and effectiveness.
Under the parliamentary reforms, she said bills lined up for tabling and discussion in the National Assembly would be presented to the newly established Legal Department for scrutiny.
She said the department, a new organ designed to serve as an advisory body to the National Assembly in all legal matters, was expected to be operational after the next financial year.
According to deputy speaker Makinda, the reforms resulted from recent consultative meetings conducted by the National Assembly to restructure the operations and systems of the House.
The Legal Department would assist legislators and the National Assembly in scrutinising bills before tabling them for debate and endorsement.
``For years, the government had been presenting bills and sent its lawyers to assist us on legal issues and how to handle the bills. This time, we want to have our own legal department to do the work,`` she said.
Establishment of the department, she said, would make it easy for individual legislators and parliamentary standing committees to present alternative bills.
Commenting on the OUT legal aid clinic, the deputy speaker said the country had very few lawyers compared to the number of people needing legal services.
She said the majority of Tanzanians cannot afford to hire private advocates or lawyers to handle their law-related problems.
The deputy speaker appealed to the OUT management to help people in rural settings in legal issues through its centres spread across the country.
``For many years, legal service providers have been confining themselves to urban areas.
The majority of our people live in rural areas where the level of literacy and economic well-being is relatively low,`` she said.
She said people in rural areas were the most disadvantaged with regard to access to legal aid services.
OUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Tolly Mbwette said the university, through its Faculty of Law, had decided to start providing legal services to the needy, an area which had been neglected by newly-established higher learning institutions.
``We are committed to providing legal services to the community as part of three core functions - teaching, research and public service,`` said the vice-chancellor.
Prof Mbwette said OUT planned to offer legal aid to Tanzanians who were not capable of accessing the relatively expensive services from advocates.
``We have already started this. As you can recall, OUT conferred an LLB degree to an inmate at Ukonga Prison, Haruna Pembe Gombela, at the last graduation congregation in October, last year,`` he said.
He pointed out that the inmate, who has now completed formalities for undertaking his Masters degree studies under the sponsorship of OUT, had already assisted 90 fellow inmates in winning their appeals.
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