Creating the Right Incentives for MPs

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Kabwe Zitto

12 April 2011

opinion

The debate on the strengthening of Parliament and the creation of an effective Parliament has been on and off. Recently members of Parliament have been discussing the introduction of a constituency development fund (CDF) to assist MPs to address some of the challenges we face in meeting the demands of our constituents.

This proposal faces enormous opposition from some sections of the civil society and donor community. One of the reasons why some stakeholders oppose the CDF is the concern that it distracts MPs from performing their legitimate core functions.

This article is not concerned with the merits and demerits of CDF, but rather it brings to our attention that, with or without CDF, MPs have to perform core functions outlined below. CDF does not address the core functions of legislation and oversight.

As a Member of Parliament for the last three years, I have observed a number of issues regarding our role as Parliamentarians and I hereby analyse the problems and put forward some recommendations for reforms. I consider this to be the right time as the Parliament is in the process of enacting a new National Assembly (Administration) Act. This brief article inputs into the legislation process of the new law to administer the affairs of the Parliament of Tanzania.

According to a recent World Bank article, legislatures around the world are developing into institutions that increasingly perform four key functions of making laws, representing citizens in policymaking and legislation, overseeing the executive and developing future leaders. The Tanzanian Parliament is increasingly performing the mentioned roles. In recent months, perceptions of Tanzanians towards the National Assembly have improved considerably.

MPs challenges

Nevertheless, there are challenges that we as Tanzanian MPs face in performing our duties. The challenges we face as MPs in performing these core functions effectively at both local and national level have been extensively documented in recent years. Some of the challenges that have been mentioned by MPs and other stakeholders through various studies include inadequate, inaccurate, unreliable and inaccessible information to facilitate our work.

Others are a lack of adequate analytical, research, and administrative support, a distorted public perception of the role of an MP (some MPs joke that, they are mobile ATMs when they visit constituencies). Others are political interference (real and/or perceived) by the executive function to the legislatures and vice versa and unfavorable working environment, including lack of premises, inadequate equipment and no technological support.

Improving MPs’ performance

All of the above five mentioned challenges are stumbling blocks that make it difficult for us to perform our legitimate and sometimes constitutional functions. The fact remains that MPs face real problems that need to be addressed. Below we examine some issues raised by MPs and analyse attempts in other countries to address them.

Access to Information

MPs cannot begin to be effective without enough of the right information at the right time in a consistent manner. The recent debate around parliamentary access to government contracts has forced this issue into the public domain, questioning old assumptions. At national level, the Parliamentary Library has the potential to be a vibrant hub of policy and legislative information that can be used by MPs and parliamentary researchers to improve legislation, policy and oversight. However, the information contained therein is inadequate, often outdated, and often of questionable relevance to today’s changing legislative environment.

To perform our representative role, MPs need to be in constant contact with constituents, to be informed of and understand their needs and to ensure that these needs are followed up with the relevant government authorities. At constituency level, many MPs do not have offices. For those MPs, who manage to obtain office space, it is often inadequately furnished and ill-equipped. This discourages MPs from spending time in constituencies because the working environment is less than ideal.

If constituents do not know where to access their MP, the MP will not be informed of their needs and will not represent them adequately. One of the reasons cited for wanting the CDF is that public funds that are available at constituency level for development projects are excessively bureaucratic and not easily accessed. Information on the money received and how this money is used should be posted publicly at local government level.

Furthermore, the MP, being a member of the local authority council should have access to all the necessary information to perform the oversight function at local level. For those MPs working in constituencies where there is internet access, following up issues at district level becomes even easier because a lot of information that is not easily accessible at district level is often posted on the various government websites.

Examples of this are budget, expenditure and performance information, audit reports, laws, by-laws, policies and service delivery survey findings. Often information produced outside of government can also provide valuable information for MPs to cross-check or supplement information provided by government.

Information and Technology (IT) equipment and internet access in the office of the MP in such cases if well used could improve the oversight function considerably.

Administrative support

One of the most common complaints at constituency level is that, once elected, constituents rarely see their MP until it is time for re-election. Some of us admit that we are unable to spend as much time in our constituencies as we would like due to the many duties we have that require us to be outside of our constituencies.

These include following up on projects earmarked for our respective constituencies with the relevant ministries etc. This problem could be addressed if the office of the MP at constituency level was staffed with pParpeople, who would assist the MP with constituency work. This way our presence would be felt even when we are not physically present. Much of the follow up work done at constituency level can be done by someone other than the MP.

In fact, even centrally, staff supports for the legislature in general and, more specifically, for Parliamentary committees is far from adequate and this affects the ability of MPs and Parliamentary committees to analyse proposed bills and policies, their implications on the nation as well as on our constituents. It also limits our ability to initiate legislation in the form of private members bills, as is our right, or to commission special studies independently of the executive to assist us with our oversight function.

While acknowledging that Tanzania is a developing country and that the national budget will reflect this fact, for a small additional increase in the administration budget for Parliament, it is possible to employ enough appropriately skilled staff to ensure that Parliament is adequately supported in performing its oversight function. In the past, I have proposed that each constituency MP should be provided with, say, Sh3 million a month for the purpose of remunerating supporting staff. This would total less than Sh10 billion a year.

Transparency

When MPs put propose revisions to our pay packages, the common public perception is that MPs are seeking to legislate large salaries for ourselves and the public constantly questions whether value for money is being obtained.

This is not surprising given that the declaration of assets that an MP is required to make annually under the Public Code of Ethics Act is also not easily accessible to the public.

Lessons from other countries

The above problems are common and we should, first of all, examine how other countries have tried to address them. In 2005, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conducted a survey of remuneration paid to legislatures within the commonwealth. The survey demonstrates the diversity in terms of what is paid to MPs across the countries surveyed and there were many differences.

Most legislatures in developing countries received a constituency allowance, some assistance towards transport or purchase of a vehicle and fuel, and an attendance allowance when parliament is in session.Many were on a medical plan or a contributory pension scheme. The salary levels varied considerably.

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