Sierra Leone’s Parliament has recorded an increase in absenteeism of its members, it was recorded that nearly a quarter which accounted to 24%, (35 Members Parliament) did not attend half of the 14 sittings between January and March 2022, according to the second edition of Parliamentary Performance Tracker done by the Institute of Governance Reform (IGR).
IGR said in the report that there was 4% drop in attendance of MPs when compared to the last quarter of 2021 where 20% of MPs did not half of the sittings, according to the official attendance records published on the parliamentary website.
The report shows that in February 17, March 15 and March 24, 2022, only 88 of parliamentarians attended the sessions and 58 (39.7%) MPs were reported absent for those three settings.
As stated in our maiden tracker, the purpose of monitoring MP performance is to increase legislators’ commitment to their representative duties and to strengthen the legislative process. Sitting should start at 10am and is mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
IGR alluded that just as in the last quarter, Parliament rarely met on time, and it was observed by IGR that sittings were delayed for an average time of about 30 minutes because the leadership of parliament had to wait to meet the 25%-member presence required to form a quorum.
By George M.O. Williams