State Affairs Committee 2074

 Introduction to committee

                   It is not possible to discharge all acts of the parliament from the full House  only. Parliamentary committees are constituted to render assistance to the regular work of parliament and to give necessary direction or advice, suggestion after monitoring and evaluating the act and activities carried out by the government. Parliamentary committees have important role in the act of making government accountable and responsible to the parliament. In the context of the nature of the spheres of government activities growing diversified and wider, the role of parliamentary committee is focused on making the government responsible and accountable to the parliament through oversight, monitoring and evaluation of the government activities.

          Parliament performs its functions through parliamentary committees in order to save time of parliament, to make business procedure simplified, utilize expertise, to conduct in-depth study of the subject matter. Since in-depth discussion is held on the subject matter under their own jurisdiction and government is made accountable, parliamentary committees are considered as mini-parliament and committee as workshop.

                   The committee has to carry out  the  work of   discussing a bill on the  subject under its own jurisdiction, formulating policy, having oversight over government, bridging between the parliament, government and people, scrutinizing and controlling delegated legislation, examining revenue and expenditure and public account including  giving necessary direction to the government after conducting study and research and monitoring and evaluating government assurances and policies.

                   In addition to having parliamentary oversight over the activities of the concerned bodies related to the  security order of the country, public administration, fair election, effectiveness of the constitutional bodies and peace process, the state affairs committee is required to make the concerned bodies accountable by enacting necessary law and policy and ,in overall, requires to play important role in maintaining good governance.

           Constitution of committee  

            In  accordance with the constitutional provision of clause(1) of article 97 of the  Constitution of Nepal that the House of the Representatives and the National Assembly may constitute committees pursuant to federal  laws, the House of the Representatives constituted,  pursuant to  rule 169 of the House of the Representatives Rules, 2018, the state affairs and good governance committee as a thematic committee on 2075/4/17 (Aug 02, 2018   ) .

                   The state affairs and good governance committee is constituted keeping in view also of the principles of proportional representation of the number of the political parties represented in House, women, dalit, indigenous nationalities, khas arya, madhesi, tharu, muslim, backward area  and  minority community as well. Whereas there is a provision to the effect that the committee may consist of up to twenty seven members except ex-officio members,  at present, there are twenty four members on the committee .As per the provision of the Rules that the Prime minister shall be ex-officio member of all committees and the minister related to the jurisdiction of the committee shall be ex officio member of the concerned committee.

          Chairperson  of Committee

           The Rules provides that election shall be held on such a date as specified by the  Speaker and the member securing majority of vote shall be elected to the office of the chairperson of the committee. The meeting  of the committee held on 2075/6/5 ( September 21,2017) unanimously elected  honorable member, Shashi Shrestha the chairperson of the committee.

Jurisdiction of  committee

          As provided for in rule 170 of the House of the Representatives Rules, 2018, the jurisdiction of the state affairs and good governance committee is as follows:-

• Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers,
• Ministry of Home affairs,
• Ministry of Defense,
• Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration,
• Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority,
• Public Service Commission,
• Election Commission,
• Peace process.

         Meeting of  committee:

         Rule 175 of the  House of the Representatives Rules, 2018, provides for the following provision regarding the meeting of the committee ;-

• the chairperson of the committee may call the meeting of the committee as required, 
• where  the meeting of the committee is  in recess, if one fourth members of the committee request in writing to chairperson with agenda for discussion that it is appropriate   to call the meeting , the chairperson shall fix within five days the date and time for meeting,
• The chairperson or in his/her absence, the member chosen from amongst the members themselves shall preside over the meeting of the committee.

In addition to this, the committee may send for the documents required for its work in a meeting or send for the concerned person or government officials.

Rule 179 of theHouse of the Representatives Rules, 2018, provides for the following provision regarding the quorum of themeeting of the committee :-

• the quorum of a committee shall be fifty one percent of the then number of members of the committee.

•  If no quorum is constituted in the meeting of a committee, the chairperson may withhold the business of the meeting until the quorum is constituted or adjourn the meeting for another time or day.
•  If the meeting of the committee is adjourned for two times consecutively for lack of quorum, the meeting may be held in the third times if at least one fourth members are present.

Decision of committee

                   Rule 181 of the House of the Representatives Rules, 2018, provides for the following provisions as regards the decision of the meeting of the committee:-

• the decision of a majority of the members present in the meeting shall be deemed to be the decision of the committee, and in case of tie of  votes, the chairperson shall caste a decisive vote .
• The decision of the meeting of the committee shall be       certified by the chairperson and the secretary.

Secretariat of  committee

The state affairs and good governance  committee has a secretariat under the federal parliament Secretariat. The Rules provides for that the secretary to the House of the Representatives shall be the ex-officio secretary to every committee. As per the provision to the effect that the Secretary- General may designate a senior officer under him/her to act as the secretary to the committee, Ms. Babita Mishra is working as the secretary to the committee. Rule 189 of the House of the Representatives Rules,2018, provides for that in order to render assistance to the performance of the function of the committee, the secretary to the committees may ask necessary information from the concerned ministry,  department or agency.