The Federal Parliament Secretariat has directed the parliamentary committees not to receive any support or sponsorship from any non-governmental agencies, without prior official permission for the same.
The directive comes in the wake of the adjournment of the meeting of the Committee for State Affairs and Good-Governance under the House of Representatives (HoR) on last Sunday after the NGO representatives were present in the meeting with breakfast and lunch that was sponsored by their organization.
The Secretariat, issuing a notice, alerted the all parliamentary committees and their secretaries at the instruction of the HoR Speaker Devraj Ghimire and National Assembly Chair Narayan Prasad Dahal and drew their attentions towards this issue.
The notice issued by Secretariat's General-Secretary Padma Prasad Pandey today reads, "Although the Secretariat has been alerting the parliamentary committees regarding some NGOs extending support to the parliamentary committees and secretariat and organizing programmes involving the lawmakers without official appraisal or prior permission thereby influencing the lawmaking and decision-making process, complaints continue to pour regarding continuation of such activities."
"Hence, the Secretariat would like to draw the attention of the parliamentary committees towards this end yet again," adds the notice.