Zurenuoc: Process to appoint parliament clerk advanced

THE process is advanced to appoint new permanent clerk of parliament, Speaker Theodore Zurenuoc said yesterday.
Until the process is completed, the acting clerk of parliament was the former deputy clerk, Simon Ila, he said.
Ila was recently under a cloud over allegations of assaulting a junior officer.
The speaker reiterated his earlier position that until Ila was found guilty of the alleged offence by a court of law, he would continue in the post until a permanent appointment was made.
He said to remove any suggestion of bias and ensure transparency, he had contracted a private company, Vanguard, to do the advertising and screening for candidates.
This had been done and a list of candidates submitted.
From here, the speaker would submit to cabinet his shortlist of candidates for the job while the parliamentary committee on appointments would make its own recommendations.
Appointment of a permanent clerk is one of a long list on the speaker’s programme.
Zurenuoc, who is also MP for Finschhafen, wanted to restore, reform and modernise the institution of parliament to return dignity and integrity, which had eroded significantly over the years.
He said he wanted parliamentarians to return to their traditional role as legislators and to keep a check on the executive government.
He said these roles had eroded so much over the years that they were no longer visible and a de facto role as goods and services deliverers had superimposed itself over these traditional roles.
These de facto role had created unnecessary pressures on the MP and distorted the function of parliament.
Zurenuoc had, since his appointment, moved to restore dignity and credibility to the house by streamlining the committee system of parliament by creating awareness on parliamentary systems and processes to alert fellow MPs to their real roles and responsibilities and by modernising the parliament in keeping with technology and other changes. around the world.