More time should be given for debate, says Marat

By HELEN TARAWA
DEPUTY Opposition leader and Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat told Parliament that the National Pandemic Bill should have been given more time for debate, especially on the exclusion of the application of the National Procurement Act and Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Dr Marat said these were major provisions in the Bill that called for a united effort by both sides of the House (Parliament).
“The Opposition would like to look at discussions on Section 51, the exclusion of the application of the National Procurement Act and PFMA and Section 53 where the procurement shall be carried out only by the controller,” he said.
“These are few of the examples that warrant the Opposition to have some time to discuss and go through every legislation so that we can produce a good legislation that we recognise as important, especially after the state of emergency is lifted.
“This is for the people but some people are struggling with their businesses and we have heard that our economy is struggling.
“We agree that this country ought to be protected from pandemic.”
Kandep MP Alfred Manase said the National Pandemic legislation needed to be properly debated as a lot of technical issues were not catered for.
He said it lacked a lot of medical input from medical experts and if they had provided, then this was not captured in the legislation.
“The legislation does not cater for a disease that’s spread from within the country,” Manase said.
“It triggers only if there is a pandemic from overseas. What happens if it starts here, how do we deal with those issues?”
Manase said these legislation lacked technical input from relevant departments.