Pretoria - Government is to adopt a series of measures to ensure that questions posed to ministers in Parliament by political parties, are answered timeously,
One of the measures includes that from now on, Director Generals will play an active role in preparing replies to parliamentary questions, when their ministers are unavailable.
Opposition parties in Parliament have noted their concerns regarding the absence of some ministers from the National Assembly when they were expected to answer questions.
Government spokesperson Themba Maseko said while ministers gave compelling reasons for their absence to answer questions, having assessed constraints raised by some, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe as the leader of government business, proposed a set of interventions that will address the issue.
Among others, Parliamentary Liaison Officers are to receive additional training on the management of parliamentary questions, including sending advanced notices to Parliament when ministers' commitments prevent them from attending question sessions.
Motlanthe, however, reminded ministers that notwithstanding the interventions, Section 92 (2) of the Constitution stipulates that Cabinet members are accountable to Parliament for the performance of their functions. This included the answering of Parliamentary questions.
"In instances where questions posed belonged to another sphere of government or entities/organisations where ministers have no authority, they would still send replies pointing this out and in instances where questions could not be answered on time because of the volume and specificity of information required, extensions would be requested in writing to the Presiding Officer and the Member who asked the question," Maseko said.
Motlanthe had also written to all ministers who had unanswered questions and requested an explanation for each unanswered question as well as the steps ministers would take to ensure that they answer all Parliamentary questions as prescribed.
Maseko said with regard to the five National Assembly question sessions held this year, all oral questions put to ministers during question time were either answered by that minister or their deputy. "The only exception to this was on 19 August 2010 when Minister Baloyi was unable, at the last minute, to respond to his Parliamentary Questions and those of the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Sicelo Shiceka) who was unwell," he explained.
He said Baloyi's unavailability was occasioned by having to attend to the public sector strike. National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel was also unavailable on the question day but had made arrangements for Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to respond.
It should also be noted that the question day on 19 August was moved from the usual Wednesday to a Thursday due to the Joint Sitting on the FIFA World Cup. In terms of the relevant Parliament rule, the Deputy Minister or another Cabinet member may answer the questions for an absent minister.
This, Maseko said, also applied with regard to the six question sessions held by President Jacob Zuma in 2009, in which certain ministers were unable to attend the relevant due to important international commitments or concurrent commitments in the National Council of Provinces. Arrangements were made for Deputy Ministers or another Minister to reply on their behalf.
"As far as the Leader of Government Business is aware, ministers do provide Parliament with explanations when they are not able to be present in the House for their questions and Parliament may wish to consider improving on its internal communications so as to ensure that chief whips of parties are aware of the reason for the absence," he added.
