The House
of Representatives is putting mechanisms in place to track all
subsidiary legislations, fees and orders initiated by all federal
regulatory and implementing ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs),
with a view to strengthening them.
REPS. |
To achieve this, two bills, the Statutory
Instrument Bill 2015 and Statutory Instrument (Legislative Scrutiny)
Bill 2015, are to be presented for consideration, according to
BusinessDay findings.
When passed into law, every subsidiary regulation/delegated legislation made by regulatory
institutions, including the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency
(PPPRA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), among others,
shall be compelled to present them for vetting and approval of the
National Assembly.
Order 119(g) of the House of
Representatives 7th Assembly, provides that the House Committee on Rules
and Business “shall scrutinise all delegated and subsidiary legislation
made, pursuant to any law made or deemed to be made by the National
Assembly and ensure its incorporation into the body of laws, pursuant to
which same is made, and ensure that same is consistent with the powers
granted by the principal Act or enabling instrument.”
A reliable source at the House of
Representatives, told BusinessDay that the previous House Committees on
Rules and Business were handicapped to enforce the provision of the
Standing Order/Rule “as there was no law compelling the regulatory
agencies to submit such subsidiary legislations to the National
Assembly.
“In Canada there is a joint committee of
the Parliament on subsidiary legislation, as well as the Ghanaian
Constitution. Henceforth, any agency which intends to criminalise
certain conduct or impose fees, will require the approval of the
National Assembly,” our explained.
According to him, the new Committee on
Subsidiary Committee, as proposed by the Adhoc Committee on Standing
Order, “Will collate all the subsidiary legislations made pursuant to
the principal Act of the MDAs for gazetting and enactment.”
He argued that resolution became
necessary as “there are thousands of subsidiary legislations unknown to
the public, but kept in the files or letter-heads of the most regulatory
agencies, or paid announcement or adverts, but only known at the point
of arrest of Nigerians.”
The Committee, during the exercise of its
functions, is expected to “give members of the public the benefit of
making input into the legislations through public hearing.
“Likewise, the Parliament will be given
the benefit of having the subsidiary legislation with the view that the
powers give to the regulatory agency has not been breached (ultra vires)
not going beyond the legal boundary.”
He added that the subsidiary legislation is consistent with the original or establishing Act itself.
According to him, because the Parliament
has not been doing this, “any aggrieved Nigerian can only seek judicial
review of any subsidiary legislation with a view to ascertaining the
validity of the legislation in question”.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA
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