PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

■ the fixed office;
An accessible parliament I 71
■ the travel budget office, where an MP was provided with funds for travelling
around the constituency in person;
■ the mobile office located in a Land Rover, and equipped with a computer
and satellite phone.
Support staff were recruited and trained for all three types of office facility.
Of the three types, the fixed office proved to be the most effective in the pilot
studies. The ‘travel budget office’ lacked any focal point or predictability
of popular access, while the ‘mobile office’ proved unsustainable in terms
of its technical demands. As a conclusion, the Parliamentary Reforms and
Modernisation Committee recommended the following:
■ that the Fixed Office Model be adopted with a limited travel budget
to enhance the MPs’ connectivity with their constituents;
■ that the Community be involved in deciding on the location of the
offices;
■ that the National Assembly should ensure that the Professional
Assistants and other employees of the office are non-partisan;
■ that the National Assembly should equip constituency offices with
basic literature translated into local languages, if possible
The Committee concluded that constituency offices significantly
improved constituents’ access and interaction with the MP. The key to
success was the leadership, performance and commitment of the MP
and the Professional Assistant.
In Zimbabwe a similar reform process has led to the establishment of
Parliament Constituency Information Centres (PCICs) in all 120 constituencies,
with the primary objective of providing citizens and local organisations
with an opportunity to engage Members of Parliament on the problems and
needs of the constituencies. As a base for parliamentary generated information,
the centres also enable the public to be involved in the legislative process
from a more informed standpoint. In addition, the centres hold a socio-economic
database of the area, regularly updated, which serves to identify some
of the most pressing issues and areas of need in the constituency.
The centres provide a meeting place for the sitting Member of
Parliament and his or her constituents. Since these centres belong to