JS quorum crisis causes loss of Tk 163 crore: TIB

Around Tk 163.57 crore was misused due to the quorum crisis in the tenth session of the national parliament, according to a study by Transparency International Bangladesh.

The 23 sessions of the previous parliament witnessed over 194.30 hours of quorum crisis, according to TIB which came up with the observations at a press conference at its Dhanmondi office.

In the report TIB came up with many other observations on the tenth parliament having 23 sessions. The tenth parliament began its journey from January 2014 and continued till October 2018.

In the report TIB said that only 12 percent of the total time was spent to pass bills in the tenth parliament and a total of 193 bills were passed in the last parliament.

In the House of Lords, 48 percent of the total time was spent to pass bills in the year 2017-2018. While in the 16^th Lok Sabha in India around 32 percent time was spent to enact bills.

In the tenth parliament session of the Bangladesh National Parliament, around 31-minute time was spent to pass a bill on an average while in India (16^th Lok Sabha) it took 141-minute time to pass a bill.

According to TIB report, 71 percent of the total bill which was passed in the previous parliament took between one to 30 minutes.

TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the main opposition Jatiya Party could not play its due role in the last parliament. In the eighth parliament, nine percent time was spent to enact bills (2001-2005) while in the ninth parliament (2009-2013), this time was eight percent.