10 new PSSCs come with stronger oversight

 

The 10 new parliamentary special select committees (PSSCs) formed after receiving the Dewan Rakyat’s approval yesterday now have a stronger oversight mechanism.

Parliamentary and institutional development specialist Maha Balakrishnan told Malaysiakini one of the reasons why the new PSSCs come with more powerful oversight is the newly approved guidelines for witnesses who appear before the committees.

The new guideline is called “Giving Evidence to Select Committees of the Dewan Rakyat: Guidelines for Public Officers”, which was produced as a partnership between Parliament and the National Democratic Institute.

“Guidelines like this exist in other Parliaments across the world but have never been produced for the Dewan Rakyat.

“These guidelines are incredibly important because they set out the power and authority of Dewan Rakyat committees and explain why civil servants are obligated to comply with requests to appear before or give evidence to the committees,” said Maha, who was the principal drafter of the guidelines.

Parliamentary and institutional development specialist Maha Balakrishnan

The guideline also sets out protections that such witnesses are granted, namely that their superiors cannot punish them for giving truthful and accurate evidence to the committees.

It also explains the process to follow if any information the committee requested is secret or a matter of national security.

“All of this will make the powers and operations of committees clearer, and hopefully, avoid the situations we’ve seen in the past when certain public officers refuse to obey a request from a committee to appear before them,” she said.

More independence

Besides the guidelines, the PSSCs have also been given stronger terms of reference, as well as more independence, to decide on their activities and lines of inquiry.

“A minister cannot stop a committee from investigating something, so long as it falls within that committee’s purview,” Maha said.

The 10 new PSSCs that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said announced yesterday are:

1. Finance and economy;

2. Health;

3. Domestic trade, entrepreneurship, cost of living and agriculture;

4. Infrastructure, transport and communications;

5. Nation-building, ethnicity, education and human resources development;

6. Women, family and community development;

7. Environment, science and plantations;

8. Security;

9. International relations and international trade; and

10. Human rights, elections and institutional reforms.

However, Azalina did not reveal the chairpersons or members of the PSSCs. - Mkini