The National Assembly is so slow and inefficient in passing laws that legal experts say it must amend the rules under which it operates.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the assembly’s president, told members Monday that a World Bank report says the Assembly does not have the legal expertise to understand the laws it passes.
“We need to amend our internal rules, because we have a lot of loopholes,” he told 99 members attending the continuing debate on mining legislation.
The mining debate began two weeks ago with a vote scheduled for Wednesday. That slow pace is the kind of thing lambasted by the World Bank report, he said.
The law setting up the Assembly was passed in 1993 and should have been updated in 1998, but was not.
Ranariddh said any update should provide a pool of lawyers to give advice to all nine commissions.
In other countries, he noted, each legislator has his or her own secretary and legal adviser to ensure that each piece of legislation is properly drafted.
Son Chhay, who chairs the Public Works, Post and Telecommunication, Industry and Commerce Commission, said he could use help in trying to obtain documents from the four ministries with which he works.
Without competent legal advice, he said, “it is easy for parliamentarians to be cheated by government officials who defend the bill in the session, because we don’t understand the problem.”
For every bill that appears before his commission, he said, “I must look to 100 kinds of documents to understand the problem. It is very hard work.”
Other lawmakers complained that with no legal counsel, Assembly members are forced to make detailed decisions on draft laws, including sometimes changing the wording.
This can lead to problems, as when lawmakers inadvertently changed the draft of a law covering penalties for drug dealers. It was supposed to say those convicted would be jailed and fined; when it emerged from the Assembly, however, it said “jailed or fined.”
Son Chhay said the Assembly’s rules are so poorly drafted that the body cannot move quickly, even in an emergency.
He said he proposed four anti-graft laws several years ago, but the expert commission that is required to review them never did, in effect killing the legislation.
The 1993 law setting up the Assembly paid more attention to disciplinary procedures for members than to setting out rules for streamlining lawmaking, he said.
Opposition lawmakers have complained for years about deficiencies in the Assembly rules. They said any changes should include a provision allowing members to sit together by party, a suggestion assembly leaders have accepted.
Son Chhay also said the existing law requires 70 percent of all members (or 86 members) to be present every time the Assembly meets.
Such a large quorum should not be necessary for simple debates, he said, but only for formal votes.
In other countries, he noted, lawmakers often debate issues with only a handful of members on the floor, before summoning the full body for votes.
