Should the National Assembly have Appointed former Minister of Health Dr Chitalu Chilufya to the Parliamentary Budget Committee?

CLAIM CHECKED:
It is against good governance, public interest and best practice to appoint former Minister of Health and Mansa Central MP, Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, to a parliamentary committee. He has been appointed to another job after being recently fired.

BACKGROUND
On the 26th of January 2021, various media outlets reported that former Minister of Health and, presently, Mansa Central MP, Dr Chitalu Chilufya had been appointed to the Budget Committee of the National Assembly. The comments from a larger part of the public expressed the sentiment that the government had “given the Minister a new job” and that he should not have been appointed to the committee. The public conversation suggested that Dr Chilufya had simply lost one job in less than honourable circumstances and then been granted another and that his appointment was against good governance, public interest and best practice.
The ACA Fact-checking Unit decided to fact check if indeed Dr Chilufya had been granted another position by government and if the public was in its right to protest his appointment to the Parliamentary Budget Committee as an example of bad governance.

VERIFICATION PROCESS
In seeking to establish the legal and best practice that provides for the appointment of Members of Parliament to Parliamentary Committees, the ACA Fact-Checking Unit analysed the legal provisions for the Committee system in Parliament, namely, the Constitution of Zambia and Parliamentary Standing Orders 2016 which provide as follows;

1. Constitution of Zambia
   Article 80 (1) The National Assembly may establish parliamentary committees.
   (i) Parliamentary committees shall be established at the first sitting of the National Assembly after a general election and after the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers.
   (ii) The National Assembly shall, in selecting members of a parliamentary committee, ensure that there is equitable representation of the political parties holding seats in the National Assembly and independent Members of Parliament.
   (iii) The Standing Orders shall provide for the categories, functions, and procedures of parliamentary committees.
   
2. Parliamentary standing orders 2016
   Section 131 (4) Except for the Leader of Government Business in the House, Deputy Speakers, Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Whip, every member shall belong to a standing committee provided that a member shall not be appointed to more than three Standing Committees.

FINDING
The Constitution through Article 80(4) guides that there must be committees in Parliament and bestows the discretion to the House on the creation, rules, and procedures on the appointment to committees through Standing Orders.
Section 131(4) of the Standing Orders makes it mandatory for every MP to be a member of at least one committee except those excluded by the section as cited above.
It is a legal requirement that Dr Chitalu Chilufya belongs to a Standing Committee, failure to do so by Parliament would amount to an abrogation of Section 131 (4) of the Standing Orders.

CONCLUSION
The ACA Fact-checking Unit finds the assertion that the appointment of former Minister of Health and Mansa Central Member of Parliament, Dr Chitalu Chilufya, to the budget Committee of Parliament is against good governance, public interest and best practice, or that his appointment translates to his being given another position in government as FALSE

ACA Fact Checking Unit: Building a questioning public.

The ACA Fact-checking Unit is part of the European Union funded Ask-Project’ implemented in collaboration with Caritas Zambia