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Parliament Secretariat Act, 1994
The Parliament Secretariat Act, 1994 has added certain distinct features
to the Parliament Secretariat, some of which are
mentioned below:
- The
Parliament Secretariat is not under the
administrative control of any Ministry.
- Salaries
and allowances of officers and staff of the
Parliament Secretariat are a charged expenditure
upon the consolidated fund of the Republic.
- Budget
of the Parliament Secretariat is finally approved by
the Speaker who obtains the advise of the Parliament
Secretariat Commission on it before forwarding the
same to the Ministry of Finance for its
incorporation in the annual financial statement of
the Govt. The Ministry of Finance cannot scrutinise
the budget of the Parliament Secretariat as it does
in case of budgets of other Ministries.
- The
Parliament Secretariat Act has instituted a 5-member
Parliament Secretariat Commission with the Speaker
as its Chairman. Four other members of the
Commission are: The Prime Minister, The Leader of
the Opposition, Minister for Law, Justice &
Parliamentary Affairs and the Minister for Finance.
A Member of the Commission can nominate an M.P. to
represent him/her in the Commission.
- The
Commission has advisory functions in respect of
determination of the strength of officers and staff
of Parliament Secretariat, increase and decrease in
their number, creation and abolition of a post,
preparation of annual budget and expenditure of
money provided in the budget etc.
- The
Speaker has been invested with all administrative
and financial powers
of the Secretariat and has been made accountable to
Parliament in respect of all work done by the
Parliament Secretariat.
- Section
4 of the Act has specified the duties and
responsibilities of the Parliament Secretariat. The
Act also provides that the Parliament Secretariat
shall be constituted with officers and staff
recruited according to procedure prescribed by
rules. The Secretary of Parliament is responsible to
the Speaker for proper performance of functions by
the Secretariat.
Structure and Functions
The
Parliament Secretariat is a professional public service
structure of officers and staff headed by the Secretary.
The Secretary of any legislature is an important
functionary in the parliamentary arena. Most national
level legislatures in Asia, including those in India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and some in Europe
designate him as Secretary General, while most in the
Commonwealth of Nations prefer to call him the Clerk of
the House.
The
principal function of the Secretary of Jatiyo Shangshad,
like his counterparts in other legislatures, is to
assist and advice the Speaker in the matter of exercise
of the powers and functions belonging to him under the
Constitution and the Rules of Procedure. He makes
himself readily available for suggestions as and when
asked for by the Speaker. During sittings of Parliament
he occupies a seat right in front of the Speaker in the
House at a lower level. He is flanked by senior
officials of the Secretariat including the Additional
Secretary (Legislation) who often takes over some of his
duties in assisting the Speaker.
A
large number of his parliamentary functions are laid
down in the Rules of Procedure but there are many others
emanating from practices and conventions of the House.
When Parliament is summoned by the President, the
Secretary issues summons to each Member to attend the
session. He maintains a roll of Members of the House
which is signed, in his presence, by every newly elected
member after taking
oath. He causes the preparation of Orders of the
Day for each sitting of Parliament for approval of the
Speaker and, after such approval, he sends a copy of it
to all Members and others concerned. He studies every
motion and its amendments and advises the Speaker on
their admissibility under the rules. He also acts as
secretary to all parliamentary committees and
sub-committees. Parliamentary duties and functions
apart, Secretary of the Parliament Secretariat also
performs a number of administrative and other functions
under the Parliament Secretariat Act, 1994. He is
principal accounting officer of the Parliament
Secretariat. He has the following four distinct
functions:
- He
works as Secretary to Parliament;
- He
works as Secretary to Parliamentary Committees;
- He
administers various services needed for smooth
functioning of Parliament;
- He
prepares the budget of Parliament Secretariat and
other offices associated with it including budget
for remuneration and privileges for Members of
Parliament and administers the same after its
approval. He also recruits people to assist him in
the discharge of these and other functions.
The first two functions listed above may be described as parliamentary
functions, while the other two as administrative
functions.
These four functions of the Secretary are performed in the following six
wings:
-
Legislative
Support Wing
- Committee
Support Wing
- Inter Parliamentary Affairs, Security & Planning
Wing
- Administrative
Support Wing
- Human
Resource Wing
- Finance & Information Services Wing
The Legislative Support Wing and the Inter Parliamentary Affairs, Security
& Planning Wing, each headed by a Additional Secretary,
work under the control and supervision of Secretary,
while the Committee
Support Wing, Administrative Support Wing, Human Resource Wing, and the Finance &
Information Services Wing, headed by four different
Joint Secretaries, function under the control of Secretary.
Legislative
Support Wing
Any Member or a Minister who wants to raise any motion or lay any report
or raise a question in the floor of the House is
required under the Rules of Procedure to give a notice
in writing addressed to the Secretary. All notices are
received in the Notice Office and sent to one or the
other branch or section of the Legislative Wing where
these notices are examined in the light of relevant
rules and procedure to determine their admissibility.
Most
of the work-load in the Legislation Wing is on the
Legislation Section I which, besides being responsible
for processing of Government Bills, also deals with some
critical subjects such as, administration of oath of
Members by the Speaker, summoning, prorogation and
dissolution of Parliament, preparation and circulation
of the Orders of the Day, demand for grants, cut motions
and all matters connected with budget, publication of a
Bulletin on each day of sitting and also on other
occasions required under the rules etc.
All
notices for introduction of a Government Bill in the
House are sent to this section for processing in
accordance with the Rules of Procedure including actions
such as printing of the Bill, distribution of its copies
among Members, its inclusion in the Orders of the Day
for introduction, reference of the Bill to the concerned
Standing Committee, motion for consideration of the
Bill, circulation of amendments etc. Once passed in the
House, the Bill is printed again incorporating the
amendments if there is any together with an
authentication from the Speaker that the Bill has been
passed in the House. The Bill is then presented to the
President for assent and after his assent the Bill is
published in the official gazette. These actions and
many more in the legislative process are taken or
initiated by the legislative branch in respect of a
Government Bill. Legislation Section I also serves as
the secretariat of two important parliamentary
committees viz. The Business Advisory Committee and the
Committee on Rules of Procedure. Incidentally, both
these committees are headed by the Speaker.
Similar action in respect of Private Members' Bills is initiated by the
other legislative branch known as Legislation Section
II. This Branch also examines the admissibility of
notices of resolutions, which are received in every
session from members in hundreds, if not in thousands.
After the admissibility of these notices has been
determined by the Speaker, the admitted resolutions are
put to a ballot to select only five for inclusion in the
Orders of the Day for one private members' day.
After a session of Parliament is summoned, Members give notices of
a large number of questions which are sent to the
Question Section for examination of their admissibility
under the Rules of Procedure. Once the Speaker has given
his decision on the admissibility of questions almost on
a daily basis all further action on these questions such
as preparation of a full list of admitted questions for
a day, circulation of the admitted list of questions to
the Members and concerned Ministries, collection of
replies from the Ministries, printing of the questions
and the replies in one list etc. are taken by the
Question Section.
There is another section in this Wing which examines admissibility of
notices for privilege motions, adjournment motions, call
attention, short discussions, motions(general) etc.
under the relevant provisions in the Rules of Procedure.
The section has also the responsibility to overview the
entire orders
of the day for a sitting and prepare briefs for
the Speaker on each item included in it. Very little
time is available to this section for this job because
the orders of day is generally available late in the
evening and the sitting commences early next morning
around 9-30 A.M.
The legislation wing has a legislative drafting unit whose primary duty
is to assist members in drafting Private Members' Bills.
It also assists the Standing Committee on Private
Members' Bills and Resolutions in redrafting of Bills,
if necessary. The unit examines the constitutionality of
Government Bills, assists all Standing Committees in the
examinations of Bills referred to them, assists, all the
branches and sections of Parliament Secretariat in the
drafting of Bills, Rules, Regulations etc., and also
agreement and memorandums of understanding to be signed
between Parliament Secretariat and any other
organisation, donor agency etc. The unit is headed by a
senior Legislative Draftsman who reports to Joint
Secretary (Legislation).
The Legislative Support Wing has also the following other component parts:
- Reporters'
Cell
- Editing
Section
- Printing
and Publications Section
- Public
Relations Branch.
Reporters' Cell
The Chief Reporter leads a team of 21 Reporters, 3 designated as Senior
Reporters and 17 as Official Reporters, who perform the
following main duties:
- Verbatim
reporting of proceedings in the House, and
- Preparation
of synopsis of committee deliberations, if meetings
are held when Parliament is not in session.
A Reporter takes a turn of five minutes' duration reporting the verbatim
proceedings in the House in shorthand. His next turn
comes in about ninety minutes during which time he goes
back to his office and renders his shorthand notes into
long hand in a computer. The Chief Reporter ensures
preparation of the proceedings in the House within 48
hours from the end of a sitting. The proceedings so
prepared are referred to as unedited debates and are
available for limited circulation among some
parliamentary functionaries, the Library of Parliament,
the Editing Branch etc. A copy of the speech of a Member
as reported in the
proceedings is sent to him for corrections, if
any, within a given time.
For preparation of synopsis of committee deliberations a team of two
Reporters is deputed to attend a committee meeting. They
prepare the synopsis in four to five days' time.
Editing Section
The
Editing Section, functioning under the supervision of
the Chief Editor of Debates, is responsible for editing
debates in the House as reported by the Reporters' Cell.
As soon as a copy of the computer transcript of the
unedited debates for a sitting of Parliament is
received, the Editing Section prepares a cover page for
each debate with necessary entries, inserts another page
showing names of the Speaker and other functionaries, a
table of contents with headings and page numbers,
divides a speech into several paragraphs, removes
ambiguities and grammatical mistakes, verifies
quotations from the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and
readily available books and documents. reflects the
decision of the Chair on expunction of un-parliamentary
expressions and inserts a footnote to that effect,
checks the correctness of the title of books and names
of authors referred to in a speech, makes necessary
changes in a speech as reported if any violation of Rule
270 of the Rules of Procedure is observed.
T he Chief Editor is assisted by 2 Editors, 2 Assistant Editors and four
Sub-Editors. The
Chief Editor reports to Joint Secretary (Legislation).
Printing and Publication Section
The Parliament Secretariat produces a large number of printed matters,
such as, debates in each day of sitting, admitted list
of questions from Members; list of questions from
Members and answers by Ministers; Bills; committee
reports on Bills together with Bills; other Committee
reports; daily Bulletins during sessions, obituary
references, list of cut motions when demands for grants
are discussed, list of Members of Parliament with their
postal addresses, summary of proceedings (session-wise),
programmes of visiting parliamentary delegates,
biography of Members of Parliament. Some of them are
published on each sitting of Parliament, some only once
during a whole session and some as and when the
necessity arises.
There is no printing press solely available to cater to the needs of
Parliament. The B.G. Press and the Government Printing
Press divide between themselves the responsibility of
printing parliamentary materials. All Bills are printed
in the B.G. Press, while most other matters like
debates, questions etc. are printed in the Government
Printing Press.
All branches, sections, units etc. of the Parliament Secretariat forward
their printing materials to its Printing and
Publications Section, who gets the printing of these
materials done in the concerned press.
Materials such as Bills, Committee reports, questions etc. are required
often required to be printed at a very short notice. The
printing and Publication Section takes the material to
the concerned press, sometimes at odd hours, and gets it
printed. This section also offers proof reading service
to the press, which is sometimes done in the press
itself. There is a stand-by arrangement in the section
to make photocopies of any material up to a maximum of
500 copies with the help of one large and two small
off-set printers.
The Section is headed by Deputy Director, Printing and Publications who
reports to J.S. (Legislation). The Deputy Director is
assisted by a Printing and Publications officers and
other staff, most of whom are proof-readers.
Public Relations Branch
The Public Relations Branch of the Secretariat provides services to
facilitate the reporting in the media proceedings in the
House and also co-ordinates similar services offered to
the media by other branches of the Secretariat. It
extends professional assistance to the representatives
of the media engaged in the coverage of parliamentary
proceedings. This unit also issues press releases on the
summoning of Parliament, assenting to Bills by the
President, visits of in-coming and out-going
parliamentary delegations, meetings and conferences etc
sponsored by the Parliament Secretariat and on other
matters as may be decided by the Speaker. Each meeting
of the 46 parliamentary committees is reported to the
media through a press release from this Branch
immediately after the meeting. It also arranges
television coverage of all parliamentary events
including meetings of parliamentary committees.
The Public Relations Branch also performs duties connected with public
relations of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. It has
some speech writing duties too. When asked by the
Speaker or the Deputy Speaker, this Unit prepares drafts
of speeches for them to be delivered in different
gatherings. Messages of felicitations or replies thereto
are also drafted by this Unit. The Unit puts up
press-clippings of new items or matters of interest to
him daily. It issues clarifications of misleading news
items published in major news-papers about Parliament,
its Committees and functionaries.
This Branch is responsible for publication of short biographies of all
Members of Parliament. The biographies of the Members of
the 7th Jatiyo Shangshad will come out
shortly. This
Branch puts up drafts of obituary references to be made
by the Speaker generally on the first sitting of each
session.
This Branch is headed by a Director. He is assisted by a Deputy Director
and 6 Assistant Directors. The Director reports to Joint
Secretary (Legislation).
Committee
Support Wing
Bangladesh Jatiyo Shangshad has a large committee system. Each Committee
has powers to appoint sub-committees. The status of a
sub-committee is similar to that of a main committee.
Combined, the total number of committees and
sub-committees functioning in Bangladesh Jatiyo
Shangshad at times exceeded 120.
Meeting of the Committees are convened by the respective chairs. The
Rules of Procedure provide that each of the 35 Standing
Committees on Ministries should meet at least once in
every month. There is no such compulsion in respect of
meetings of other 11 committees. The Public Accounts
Committee, however, holds meetings almost twice a month.
The Committee Wing of the Parliament Secretariat is responsible for
rendering secretariat service to 40 parliamentary
committees including all the 35 Standing Committees on
Ministries as well as their sub-committees. Legislation
Wing renders secretariat service to five committees and
Administration Wing to one. The main functions of the
Committee Wing are:
- Issuing
notices of committee meetings to Members of the
committee and others concerned;
- Preparation
of working papers for the meeting (sometimes the
concerned Ministry would prepare the working paper);
- Preparation
of minutes of the meeting and circulation of the
same after due approval;
- Calling
for papers and witnesses, if so decided by the
committee;
- Arranging
visits of sub-committees to various places for
inspection, inquiry etc.
- Drafting
reports of the committees and taking other actions
such as to
get the reports printed and presented in the House.
The Secretary of Jatiyo Shangshad is the ex-officio Secretary to every committee and sub-committee of Jatiyo
Shangshad. The Rules of Procedure, however, provide that
the Secretary may authorise an officer of the
Secretariat to act as Secretary to any
Committee/Sub-committee on his behalf. The Secretary of
course, attends all the meetings of the committees
headed by the Speaker.
Joint Secretary (Committee) is the head of the Committee Wing. There are
4 Deputy Secretaries, 7 Assistant Secretaries or Senior
Assistant Secretaries and 6 Committee Officers in the
Committee Wing. The Jatiyo Shangshad Library also
functions under the overall supervision of Joint
Secretary (Committee). Joint Secretary (Committee)
reports to Additional Secretary (Legislation).
Jatiyo Shangshad Library
With
a collection of a little over 75 thousand volumes of
books and other materials that include debates of
different Parliaments, reports, magazines, periodicals,
gazettes etc. the Jatiyo Shangshad Library is one of the
largest in the country. This is the lone library in the
country that follows the Library of Congress
classification and cataloguing system, which the library
adopted in the early 80's.
Located in the ground floor around the only pillar that takes the entire
load of the central block of the huge Parliament
Building, the library has a reading room with present
seating arrangement for 45 persons. The reading room has
however a seating capacity of 200 persons. Most of the
collections in the library are of parliamentary
interest. The collection also includes books on law and
jurisprudence, political science, economics, ethics and
religion, history and international relations, among
some others. It has the following rare materials:
Name of rare materials
Period
1.
Debates of Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh
1972
2. Debates of Bengal Legislative Assembly
1937 - 46
3.
Debates of East Pakistan Assembly
1948 - 69
4. Debates of the Pakistan National Assembly
1947 - 69
5. Pakistan Gazette
1948 - 71
6. Dhaka Gazette
1948 - 71
7. Bangladesh Gazette
1971 to date
8.
All Acts, Ordinances, President's Orders,
Martial
Law Proclamations, Orders, Regulations 1836 to
date
Debates of first to the seventh Parliament of Bangladesh are available in
the library. The library has all the copies of a number
of major daily newspapers published from Dhaka since
1974. It has also a good collection of international
magazines from that time.
The Jatiyo Shangshad Library is primarily meant to meet the needs and
requirements of Members of Parliament in performance of
their functions as legislators. Officers and staff of
Parliament Secretariat can also use the library.
Research scholars particularly those from the
universities and other educational and research
institutions are allowed to use the library, if prior
permission of the Secretary of Parliament is obtained.
Such use is however subject to certain conditions. While
a Member of Parliament or an officer or staff of the
Parliament Secretariat can borrow books other than
reference and rare books, for a period of 7 days during
sessions of Parliament and for 15 days when Parliament
is not in session, research scholars do not enjoy this
facility of borrowing books. Demand for use of the
library by research scholars is on the increase.
The library remains open on Saturday to Wednesday from 9 am to 4 pm and
on Thursday from 9 am to 2 pm. When Parliament is in
session it follows the office timing of the Parliament
Secretariat. The library remains open until half-an-hour
after the end of the sitting.
The library has three units viz. library, documentation and research,
each headed by a Librarian or a Research Officer of the
status of a Class I Officer. The Director of the Library
has the responsibility of supervising the operation of
the library. He is assisted by a Deputy Director, who is
also known as the Chief Librarian.
There is a Library Committee of the House consisting of 10 members. The
Deputy Speaker is the ex-officio Chairman of that
committee. Officers of the Library render secretariat
service to the Library Committee.
Administrative
Support Wing
The Administrative Support Wing is responsible for providing several services
to the House, its committees, its Members, officers
and staff of the Parliament Secretariat and to the visitors
interested in the proceedings of the House. Prominent
among these services are the following:
- Arrangement
for recitation from the Holy Quran at the
commencement of each sitting of Parliament;
- Arrangement
for interpretation of proceedings of Parliament from
Bengali to English if invited foreign are present in
the galleries during sittings of the House;
- Procurement,
supply and maintenance of office equipment (such as
type-writers, computers, photocopiers, fax machines,
cyclostyling machines, security equipment etc.), and
furniture and fixtures for parliamentary offices
like the offices of the Leader and Deputy Leader of
House, Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition,
Chief Whip and Whips of Parliament and for the
Parliament Secretariat;
- Procurement
and supply of office stationary for use by different
offices including those required during sessions of
Parliament;
- Despatch
and receipt of out-going and in-coming letters;
- Residential
accommodation for MPs in the MP Hostels including
catering arrangements and supply of furniture and
linens etc.;
- Installation
of one telephone at the residence of each Member of
Parliament and installation of telephones at the
offices and residences of parliamentary
functionaries including officials of the Parliament
Secretariat;
- Import
of duty free cars by Members of Parliament;
- Provision
for insurance coverage for Members of Parliament;
- Arrangement
for issue of identity cards to Members of Parliament
and officers and staff of the Parliament
Secretariat;
- Providing
MPs with travelling passes enabling them to travel
within Bangladesh free of any costly air, rail and
steamer;
- Provision
of vehicles for official use;
- Security
arrangements of the Parliament Building and the two
MP Hostels;
- Issuing
passes for galleries of the House during sessions;
- Inter-parliamentary
Relations of Jatiyo Shangshad; and
- Maintenance
of the Web Site and Internet for Bangladesh
Parliament.
This Wing is also responsible for running by concerned authorities a
medical centre, a branch of the Sonali Bank, a Post
Office and, during sessions, an Airline counter within
the Parliament premises..
Matters relating to MP Hostels, catering services etc. are the concern of
the 'House Committee' consisting of 12 members headed by
the Chief Whip of Parliament. The Service Branch in this
Wing serves as the secretariat of this Committee. This
Wing is also responsible for allocation of office and
residential accommodation to the parliamentary
functionaries and officers and staff of the Parliament
Secretariat.
Matters connected with Inter-Parliamentary relations of Jatiyo Shangshad
is the concern of the Delegation Branch in this Wing.
This Branch is responsible for payment of annual
subscription to, and all other matters such as
participation in meetings and conferences of, the
following international and regional parliamentary
bodies:
- Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU);
- Parliamentary
Union of OIC Member States (PUOICM)
- Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association (CPA)
- Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (Asia Region)
- Association
of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP)
- Association
of SAARC Speakers & Parliamentarians
- Asian
Forum of Parliamentarians on Population &
Development
Matters connected with all in-coming and out-going parliamentary
delegations are dealt with in this branch.
The delegation branch is headed by a Deputy
Secretary who is assisted by two Assistant Secretaries
and a Protocol Officer.
Joint Secretary (Administration) heads this Wing. He is assisted by three
Deputy Secretaries, eight Senior Assistant Secretaries
and Assistant Secretaries and a Protocol Officer. Joint
Secretary (Administration) reports to Additional
Secretary (Implementation). This wing has also two
specialised offices:
- Office
of Serjeant-at-Arms and
- Law
Office.
Office
of the Serjeant at Arms
1. Office of the Serjeant at Arms is an age old institution
and sustains as a legacy of West Minister. Over the
years, however, the role of the institution had undergone
changes in countries, which adopted this institution
to meet the emerging challenges of security. But the
principal traditional role still persists and has been
given legitimacy through Rules of Procedure. In discharging
the responsibilities of the office, a senior officer
is appointed in the Parliament secretariat whose title
is “Serjeant at Arms”. He is supported by
two Deputy Serjeant at Arms and Assistant Serjeant at
Arms. The principal duty of the Serjeant at Arms is
to attend upon and enforce the orders of the Honorable
Speaker as laid down in the Rules of Procedure. He also
regulates overall security.
2. Normally a Captain of Bangladesh Navy (Equivalent
to Colonel of Army and Group Captain of Air Force) is
appointed on deputation as Serjeant at Arms. A Squadron
Leader and Superintendent of Police are appointed on
deputation as Deputy Serjeant at Arms. On the other
hand, the Assistant Serjeant at Arms is a promoted Parliament
secretariat Security Inspector. Sometimes armed forces
officer is also appointed on deputation as Assistant
Serjeant at Arms. Under the office a good number of
deputed armed forces personnel and Parliament secretariat
security personnel perform their duties for maintaining
law and order within the precincts of the house. Dhaka
Metropolitan Police and Armed Police Battalion assist
the office for ensuring security within the Parliament
complex.
3. The office of the Serjeant at Arms functions through
following channel of command:
HONOURABLE
SPEAKER |
SECRETARY |
ADDL
SECRETARY (IPA) |
SERJEANT
AT ARMS |
| DEPUTY SERJEANT AT
ARMS-1(ADMIN) |
DEPUTY SERJEANT AT ARMS-2(OPS) |
ASSTT SERJEANT
AT ARMS-1 |
ASSTT
SERJEANT AT ARMS-2 |
Duties and Responsibilities
of the office
4. Among the duties and responsibilities assigned
to office of the Serjeant at Arms by the rules, administrative
orders and practices, the following deserve special
mention;
a. Enforce the orders of the Honorable Speaker in
terms of maintenance of order and discipline as laid
down in the Rules of Procedure.
b. Attend the Honorable Speaker while entering and
leaving the chamber during the Parliament session.
c. Ensure law and order within the precincts of the
House and security within the Parliament complex.
d. Protocol duties and ceremonial functions.
e. Control the access of authorized personnel to the
Parliament house.
f. Issue identity cards to Member of Parliaments, Officials,
Employees and other concern personnel of the Parliament.
Law Office
The Law Office is the most recently established working unit in the Parliament
Secretariat performing a number of important duties
and responsibilities not necessarily falling within
the sphere of the wing to which the office belongs.
The office gives legal opinion on service matters in
general and on disciplinary matters in particular. It
deals with all cases of Parliament and Parliament Secretariat
pending before courts of law. The office has only one
officer, the Law Officer. With the appointment of the
present incumbent of the post on deputation from the
Judicial Service, the Law Office started functioning
in 1996. The Law Officer also assists the Speaker in
the drafting of some of his rulings in the House. The
Law Officer also makes himself available in meetings
of Committees examining Bills referred to them by the
House.
Human Resource Wing
The functions of the Human Resousce Wing relate to the following two distinct
areas:
- Personnel
administration; and
- Accounts.
The Legislative Support Wing has also the following other component parts:
1. Human Resource-I
2. Human Resource-II
3. Human Resource-III
4. Training
Cell
5. Computer
Cell
Work in each of these areas is organised under a Deputy Secretary.
Matters connected with personnel administration of all officers and staff
from recruitment to retirement, which includes their
career development through in-service training inside
and outside the country, their promotion and
confirmation, maintenance of their annual confidential
reports, grant of leave, recreation allowances,
disciplinary actions for violation of rules and orders
etc. are dealt with in three establishment sections.
Obtaining services of officers of the Government on
deputation and their are reversion are also the concerns
of these section. It also deals with matters relating to
appointment of personal staff according to provisions of
law for the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader and Deputy
Leader of the Opposition, Chief Whip, Whips and Chairmen
of Committees for the duration they hold their
respective offices. Proposals for amendments in the
existing laws governing remuneration and privileges of
the above and also Members of Parliament are also dealt
with in one of the establishment section. Assumption of
office by the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader and Deputy
Leader of the Opposition, Chief Whip and Whips are
notified by this section. Speaker nominates certain
numbers of MPs to the Senates of the Universities and to
the governing bodies etc. of some national bodies under
some existing statute. These nominations of the Speaker
are communicated by one of the establishment sections.
The Accounts Branch is primarily responsible for two main functions viz.
preparation of the yearly budget and disbursement of
funds. The budget of Parliament is divided into the
following sections:
- Parliament
Secretariat
- Speaker
and Deputy Speaker including their staff
- Leader
and Deputy Leader of the House (with very nominal
allocations)
- Leader
and Deputy Leader of the Opposition including
personal staff
- Chief
Whip and Whips, including their personal staff
- Members
of Parliament
The Speaker gets a statement of the estimated expenditure in respect of
the above heads for each financial year at least three
months before its commencement. The Parliament
Secretariat Commission advises the Speaker on the
formulation of the budget. The budget is forwarded by
the Speaker to the Minister for Finance for
incorporation in the annual financial statement of the
Govt.
Disbursement of funds is done in several ways but one common feature is
that bills have to be prepared and submitted to the
Chief Accounts Officer of the Government who is
specifically responsible for the accounts of the
Parliament Secretariat. All such bills are pre-audited
and once they are passed, cheques are issued by that
office in favour of the Disbursing Officer of the
Parliament Secretariat. Officers of certain categories
are termed as self-drawing officers who submit their own
monthly pay and other bills through the Accounts Branch
and cheques are issued in their favour. This Branch also
disburses discretionary fund of MPs on a quarterly
basis. A Member of Parliament who does not opt for
travelling passes receives a sum of Tk. 30,000 per annum
in lieu of the passes. This amount is disbursed in three
instalments. Members of Parliament and all other
dignitaries are self-drawing officers but they do not
have to sign any pay bill every month. Their monthly pay
or remuneration bill is paid through cheques.
This Branch has a role to play in co-ordinating replies on audit
objections furnished by different branches of the
Secretariat. Re-appropriation of sums of money from one
to another is among the responsibilities of this Branch.
Some government advances to the officers and staff such
as house building advance, motor car/motor cycle/cycle
advance and advances from the General Provident Fund are
made by this Branch. This advances are recoverable in
monthly instalments.
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