Parliament back for summer sitting

THE National Assembly will resume today after a two-month winter recess.

The first two bills to be tabled during the eight-week session will be the Financial Intelligence Bill, the Combating of the Abuse of Drugs Bill and the Local Authorities Fire Brigade Services Bill. The Financial Intelligence Bill had already been tabled earlier this year by Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, but she withdrew it because of shortcomings.The draft deals with money laundering and fraudulent practices and what role the Bank of Namibia will play to curb such practices.Today, the annual reports of NamPost, Telecom and their holding company for 2004-2005 will also be tabled.Education Minister Nangolo Mbumba will table his report on his ministry’s roundtable pledging conference between Government and development partners for the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP).Other bills in the pipeline are a draft to replace the Electricity Act of 2000, a bill on gambling and the long-awaited bill on the protection of Namibia’s environment.Parliamentarians will also debate Namibia’s accession to the International Convention against Doping in Sport, which will be tabled during this session.Another convention on the agenda is the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation.An attempt to find additional information on the coming National Assembly session on its website failed, as the site was out of order.The Financial Intelligence Bill had already been tabled earlier this year by Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, but she withdrew it because of shortcomings.The draft deals with money laundering and fraudulent practices and what role the Bank of Namibia will play to curb such practices.Today, the annual reports of NamPost, Telecom and their holding company for 2004-2005 will also be tabled.Education Minister Nangolo Mbumba will table his report on his ministry’s roundtable pledging conference between Government and development partners for the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP).Other bills in the pipeline are a draft to replace the Electricity Act of 2000, a bill on gambling and the long-awaited bill on the protection of Namibia’s environment.Parliamentarians will also debate Namibia’s accession to the International Convention against Doping in Sport, which will be tabled during this session.Another convention on the agenda is the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation.An attempt to find additional information on the coming National Assembly session on its website failed, as the site was out of order.