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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda yesterday rapped some civic society members for being “ignorant” about legislative processes, yet their responsibility was to give civic education to the public.

Mr Chokuda said he was worried about how civic societies discharged their duties when they did not appreciate some basic legislative processes, including budget formulation.

He said this while addressing senior Government officials, civic society members and Non-Governmental Organisations during an Open Budget Senstisation workshop organised by the National Association of Non Governmental Organisations in Harare.

Mr Chokuda said he was shocked by the failure to appreciate legislative and budgetary issues among civic society members during one meeting where he was invited to present a paper.

“The amount of ignorance that I found in civic society surprised me,” he said. “I said if these are the people that are supposed to educate the public with this level of ignorance, what does this mean?

“I have seen the civic society trying to engage Parliament when the door has already been closed. You want to make a contribution to a Bill that has already been passed.”

Turning to public participation in legislative framework, Mr Chokuda said Parliament was spending a lot of money to conduct public hearing programmes, but people in some instances would fail to come in their numbers.

“We use a lot of money to take portfolio committees for public consultation, but it is the participation of the public that has been disappointing,” said Mr Chokuda.

He said Parliament had been effective and instrumental in ensuring that the national budget reflected the will of the people.

Mr Chokuda gave an example of last year where Parliament used its influence to get Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa to agree to raise the budget for the Ministry of Health and Child Care to $520 million from $408 million.

Nango executive director Mr Learnard Mandishara said his organisation was a researcher of International Budget Partners which established Open Budget Surveys (OBS) in several countries aimed at promoting public access to budget information.