Parliament scales down manpower

PARLIAMENT’s management has scaled down its manpower by about 40 per cent following the death of a staff due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) infection during the Easter weekend.
Clerk Kala Aufa told The National that the scale down was part of measures imposed in Parliament to maintain a bare minimum administration.
“The exercise commenced on Thursday is to monitor the movement of people into Parliament,” he said.
“This is a precautionary measure that we are taking as per the protocols that have been imposed by the authorities.
“Since we lost an officer, there have been much concern raised on the safety of workers.
“As part of this exercise, we have closed the Parliament doors to the public.
“The whole building has been fumigated and cleaned up for events this week and the Parliament sitting next week.” Aufa said it was not a lockdown but to monitor traffic of people in and around the Parliament area.
He said services, including catering, had been closed to discourage regrouping of people.
Regarding MPs’ staff being locked out, Aufa said it was for the reasons of cleaning and fumigating the Parliament House.
“We are adhering to the protocols because we already had a death and our staff are worried,” he said.
“We want to stop as much as possible movement of people in and around Parliament so that we can prepare for the events in the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, Aufa said the remains of Kerema MP Richard Mendani would lie in State today.
He said all measures and protocols would be followed.
He said Parliament would undergo a thorough clean up after to prepare for the April sitting.