{"id":3618,"date":"2021-04-21T14:20:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T14:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onecitizendaily.com\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2021-04-21T14:22:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T14:22:37","slug":"sluggish-renovation-of-parliament-raises-fear-of-another-dura-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/21\/sluggish-renovation-of-parliament-raises-fear-of-another-dura-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"Sluggish renovation of parliament raises fear of another \u2018Dura Saga\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The main meeting hall still under renovation<\/em><\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Philip Buda Ladu <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renovation work at the National Parliament building is still\nfar away from completion two years down the road with the work at a snail speed\nmounting uncertainty over the financial handlings. In 2018, the speaker\nannounced plans to renovate the building after reports of leakages that\ninterrupted parliament sittings.The work commenced 2018 and was expected to be\ncompleted in a couple of months, the months have turned into years and the\nrenovation is not far from over. No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper reporter visited\nthe parliament building on Monday and observed that construction workers were\nstill busy dismantling the old tiles of the building and the sealing while new\nones were being fixed. The main meeting Hall had its seats and tables all\nremoved and only an empty-dusty wide room could be seen with some heaps of box\nfiles of documents spread on the rough-dirty floor. Almost all the corridors of\nthe building were seen parked with broken and fairly good leather, chairs and\noffice tables as the chambers of the parliamentary building undergo renovations\nwith dusts in almost every corner of the building, an indication that the work\nmight have just resumed a few months ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why has it taken that\nlong? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity told the reporter\nthat the renovation work started without a specified period for completion and\nno budget stipulated for the renovation was disclosed to lawmakers. In most\ncases every construction project at least has anticipated timeframe for the\ncompletion of the task which are made public but the Parliamentary building\ncase seems to be different as sensitive information looks classified including\nname of the construction company, the MP alleged. The Lawmaker said it was only\nthe speaker and the Clerk who had information about the renovation process.\nDeng Tel Ayuen, the Chairperson of Legislation and Justice Committee who was\nalso contacted by the reporter also declined to comment on the matter saying\nthe Speaker of Parliament and the Parliamentary Clerk should be the right\npeople to explain why the renovation work is taking long to be completed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When contacted by phone, the Speaker of the August House,\nUbuch Ujwok Akuo declined to answer why the renovation work had taken that long\nsaying the matter wasn\u2019t his role. \u201cYou go to the Parliament and just ask\nanybody in the Parliament not the Speaker! It is not the role of the Speaker\nOkay!\u201d Ujwok responded to No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper on phone on Monday 19th<\/sup>\nApril 2021. Since 2019, the lawmakers have been conducting their business in Freedom\nHall as the renovation had already kicked off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long wait to\nreturn for business <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawmakers are currently for their recess and are also\nwaiting for reconstitution into the Revitalized Transitional National\nLegislative Assembly (TNLA). The Presidency had already missed several\nself-imposed deadlines to reconstitute the Parliament. Deng Tel Ayuen, said\nthey are eagerly waiting for the announcement of the reconstituted TNLA as all\nthe parties are believed to have submitted their names. \u201cWe are even anxiously\nwaiting as members of Parliament for the reconstitution of the Assembly but the\nthing is left to the parties to the agreement so we have no any other information\nother than just to wait. We were told that names have been submitted but if the\ndifficulty is on what side we cannot know\u201d Tel told No.1 Citizen Daily\nNewspaper on phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when the TNLA was reconstituted, what awaits the new\nlawmakers is the empty-dusty wide room. Tel said if the TNLA was reconstituted\nin the few coming days then the August House will opt to carry its business in\nthe Freedom Hall as they did last time. The National Legislative Assembly was\nestablished in 2011 by the interim constitution of South Sudan 2005. As a\nresult of a peace agreement signed in 2015 the National Legislative Assembly\nwas reconstituted as the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) with\n400 members. The yet to be reconstituted TNLA under the 2018 peace accord would\nhave 550 members drawn from different parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reconstituted TNLA would exercise the functions of;\noverseeing the performance of the national government institutions; approving\nplans, programs and policies of the national government; approving budgets;\nratifying international treaties, conventions and agreements; adopting\nresolutions on matters of public concern; summoning ministers to answer\nquestions of the Assembly on matters related to their ministries. It also\ncarries the functions of approving appointments as required by the transitional\nconstitution or the law; casting a legislation to regulate the conditions and\nterms of service of the Judiciary and its oversight mechanisms, these among\nothers are the tasks as mandated by the constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Philip Buda Ladu Renovation work at the National Parliament building is still far away from completion two years down the road with the work at a snail speed mounting uncertainty over the financial handlings. In 2018, the speaker announced plans to renovate the building after reports of leakages that[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3620,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions\/3620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}