By Ragan M. Conteh

Speaker of Parliament Solomon Segepoh Thomas have vowed to drag Members of Parliament to Committee Room One to discuss their punctuality in the plenary sessions.

Speaking in an upset mood at his chamber, he insisted that the low attendance of Parliamnetarians in the well of Parliament during plenary sessions has become a threat and embarrassing situation.

Speaker revealed that, the low turnout of MPs in Parliamentary sessions started long ago spanning 15 to 20 years ago.

He emphasized that such perineal absenteeism during Parliamentary sittings should be addressed by putting total stop to it.

“There is no way to continue such behavior by some MPs. I have been seated here for almost an hour without a quorum and this has become habitual and must stop,” Speaker stressed in frustration.

Therefore, in a bid to nip absenteeism and late coming for work by MPs, Mr. Speaker has proposed a meeting with all MPs to discuss the issue.

The Speaker said by next week, a date for the meeting will be announced, stating that all parliamentarians must attend and agree on penalties for both late coming on plenary and absenteeism.

Hon. Sengepoh Thomas added that Parliament will have to decide on the penalty to be instituted on legislators who have made it habit of absenting themselves from Parliamentary sittings.

The Speaker gave the warning after the House had to wait for a while to get a quorum for proceedings to commence, urging the Speaker to discourage the practice by implementation of stringent measures.

He said, oversight functions should not overshadow the main Parliamentary sittings, adding that times without number, sittings in Parliament were delayed due to the absence or lateness of MPs, suggesting that MPs should now be registered late whenever they appear late for sittings.

The Speaker maintained that time and again he had admonished Members about the importance of attending sittings on time but maybe it is right for him to put stringent measures in place by not allowing late comers to enter the well, adding that he thinks they should go further than just marking the MPs absent by implementing additional penalties.