The Speaker of the National Assembly, Honourable Dithapelo L. Keorapetse received the British High Commissioner to Botswana who is also the United Kingdom Special Representative to SADC, H.E. Mr. Giles Enticknap in an introductory courtesy call yesterday. The High Commissioner congratulated the Speaker on his election to the office of the Speakership. He highlighted the long standing and strong ties between the United Kingdom and Botswana, emphasizing his role as the envoy to Botswana in finding ways in which they can support the Speaker and his team. He also recognised President, Advocate Duma Boko’s inaugural State of the Nation Address (SONA) speech noting that the priorities of both governments of the United Kingdom and Botswana are closely aligned. The High Commissioner expressed keen interest in hearing about the Speaker’s priorities moving forward. In reply, the Speaker of the National Assembly shared that he has been a Member of Parliament for ten (10) years and as such, he is familiar with Parliament Business, he further shared that in his previous life, he taught Politics at the University of Botswana and have published work on the shortcomings of Parliament. β€˜I am coming in, with an idea of some aspects which need to be improved’, he said. When sharing his priority areas, he indicated that, the independence of Parliament is something they have to work towards as there is need for a truly independent Parliament. Hon. Keorapetse expressed that there is need to look into issues of resourcing and staffing citing that his wish is to see Parliament moving towards a more specialized role for Parliament staff. We need to have expertise to support the oversight role of Parliament. Resourcing of the library and the research unit is critical. Other key aspects that are critical is the Budget office. There are no financial experts in Parliament to scrutinize and to render advice on the merits and demerits of adopting Bills brought by the Executive on financial issues. Members of Parliament rely on their own expertise. The Speaker further said, going forward there is a need to put in place Institution’s mechanisms to help Members of Parliament to effectively discharge their mandate. Honourable Keorapetse shared that his other area of interest is Parliamentary oversight of the security sector and that his wish is for Parliament to be assisted in that regard. He further said they will be moving towards constitution review, and other legal reforms to ensure that Parliament is truly independent. The Speaker emphasized the need for capacity building of Members of Parliament, staff and the committees. He shared that some of Parliament improvements, were effected after a benchmark with the House of Commons, saying they may want to re-visit some of those benchmarks.

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