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(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T Senators refuse to discuss Biti's budget

MDC-T Senators refuse to discuss Biti's budget
Posted: Sunday, November 28, 2010 12:06 am

THE MDC-T has found itself in a Catch-22 situation as, on one end it needs to approve Finance Minister Tendai Biti's 2011 National Budget in the Upper House, but its Senators are boycotting parliament over the re-appointment of provincial governors by President Mugabe.

MDC-T Senators have vowed that they will not sit to debate the Finances and Appropriation Bills that seek to give effect to the fiscal policy statement presented last Thursday.

The Finances Bill seeks to legalise the various tax measures that Biti announced last week while the Appropriation Bill, once passed, gives effect to budget votes allocated to Government ministries and departments.

The two Bills are supposed to sail through both the House of Assembly and Senate before being submitted for Presidential assent.

However, uncertainty shrouds their approval by Senate as MDC-T Senators have vowed to continue boycotting debate if the sitting provincial governors attend sessions.

Members from the Upper House disrupted a recent sitting in protest against the constitutional re-appointment of provincial governors by President Mugabe.

The governors sit in Senate.

The House had to be adjourned to February next year because of this disruption.

Analysts hinted yesterday that the President might be forced to dissolve Parliament and proclaim early polls if the Legislature becomes non-functional.

MDC-T Chief Whip Mr Innocent Gonese yesterday said his party would continue boycotting Senate as it did not recognise the provincial governors.

“We will not sit with them and we cannot legitimise them,” he said.

“If they continue to come to Senate they would be trying to perpetuate conflict.”

He said the MDC-T would push for the House of Assembly to by-pass Senate if the disagreements continued.

“Legally, the minister in charge of the Bill can write a certificate of urgency to the President for him to assent to it,” he said.

Mr Gonese said the President could not dissolve Parliament without consulting the Prime Minister.

“I do not think dissolving Parliament would be the first viable option,” he said.

Clerk of Parliament Mr Austin Zvoma said it was possible to recall Senate to deliberate on the Bills.

“Unless the Senate meets to pass the Finances and Appropriation Bills and legislation associated with the National Budget, it means the Budget will not have been passed by Parliament,” he said.

“It is, nonetheless, possible to bring forward the date on which the Senate was supposed to resume business.”

Mr Zvoma, however, said the President has the prerogative to dissolve Parliament and call for fresh elections.

“If such a case arose, fresh elections would ensure Parliament transacts its business,” he said.

The clerk said it is not possible to bypass Senate because there were no disagreements between the two Houses.

“Normally the Senate is bypassed when there are disagreements with the House of Assembly. But the situation we have now is that Senate is not sitting,” he said.

Prominent Harare lawyer Mr Ashton Musunga of Musunga and Associates said the MDC-T senators were boycotting sitting at their own peril.

“They are shooting themselves in the foot by hindering the passage of the Bills,” he said.

“The President would be left with no option but to dissolve the entire Parliament.”

The impending Budget boycott comes after Members of the House of Assembly also threatened to block the passage of the same in protest against meagre earnings.

The legislators — from both Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations — are demanding monthly salaries of US$3 000.
Their present income is pegged at US$400 per month.

Labels: MDC, MPs, SALARIES, TENDAI BITI

posted by MrK @ 5:20 PM