via Renamo tries to move its bill up the agenda – The Zimbabwean 1 April 2015
Parliamentary deputies from Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo on Tuesday demanded that the Renamo bill on establishing “provincial municipalities” should be discussed by the current sitting of the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, before the state budget for 2015.
There is no disagreement on the first item to be discussed – the majority Frelimo Party, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) all agree it should be the new government’s five year programme for the 2015-2019 period.
Renamo argues that, immediately after the debate on the five year programme, its bill granting the provinces autonomy should be scheduled. Frelimo, however, thought it much more important to move to the government’s long overdue plan and budget for this year.
The parliamentary chairperson, Veronica Macamo, pointed out that this was the order agreed by the Assembly’s governing board, the Standing Commission, with no dissent from the Renamo members of the Commission.
Renamo deputy Jose Manteigas argued that the Renamo bill took logical priority since it would have an impact on the budget. He was supported by the head of the Renamo group, Ivone Soares, who claimed “if we pass the budget first, then the Renamo bill on the provinces, we will later have to pass an amended budget”.
Frelimo deputy Manuel Chang, who was Finance Minister in the previous government, warned against imagining that there could be extra money for the budget just because a bill on provincial autonomy might be passed.
“There are no extra resources”, he stressed. But, if necessary, the government could “find solutions” within the budget, since there were always some budget lines that were flexible.
Renamo deputy Antonio Muchanga said that Renamo bill should be debated first simply because it has already been distributed to the relevant parliamentary commissions, whereas the government has not yet submitted the 2015 plan and budget.
Macamo pointed out that this was merely because the government could not bring those documents to the Assembly before the Five Year Programme was passed, since the annual plans emanate from the programme.
In any case, she said, parliamentary procedure determines that nothing at all can be discussed before the working commissions have submitted their written opinions. To date there are no written opinions available on anything at all – not even on the Five Year Programme, although this has been available for several weeks.
As a result, the Assembly plenary has nothing to discuss, and so cannot meet to discuss the Programme on Tuesday, as originally planned. The debate has thus been postponed by a week, and only after the debate on the Five Year Programme is over will the Plenary decide what to discuss next.
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