Parliament has saved tens of thousands of dinars after handling 85 per cent of its workload remotely since the outbreak of Covid-19 in February.
It now uses official electronic signatures on legislation and proposals between MPs, senior officials and employees instead of paying out for transportation, postal or paper costs.
Secretary general Rashid Bunajma revealed the changes at a Press conference during a National Assembly meeting yesterday in which only information technology (IT) staff members were obliged to attend.
“In six months we have gone to having 85pc of our work carried out remotely, whether internally or with the government and the people,” he added.
“This has made us huge savings although some has had to be circulated to departments in need, mainly IT, which is currently hosting a bulk of the work.
“We are expecting to make the highest ever savings in parliamentary history and aim to continue to do even better in the years to come.”
Parliament sessions, committee meetings, forums and conferences, training sessions and majlises are all being conducted online.
Mr Bunajma added that assembly members, MPs and Shura Council members had also saved on travel expenses allocated for participation in events normally requiring attendance abroad. Like most things, these global gatherings were also moved to the virtual landscape.
Efficient
“We had already started a comprehensive plan to efficiently shift to electronic work rather than a conventional setting but Covid-19 speeded up things significantly,” said Mr Bunajma.
“Foreign participations for MPs and Shura members have also turned ‘virtual’ and that’s also contributed to savings with no trips, or accompanying employees, needed.
“Will we continue remotely, return to a conventional way of conducting business, or a mixture of both? Now we can select any option, as we are prepared.”
Mr Bunajma said the all parts of parliamentary process had become more efficient and, in evidence, a record 1,562 requests for legal advice from MPs had been provided by a special panel in Parliament since October.
“Work has not been disrupted due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Since we shifted to a more electronic process, activity has in fact significantly increased,” he explained.
“We are already assessing all the indicators and indexes and it shows that our work has been elevated. And we are setting a target for an even better performance by 2022.”
Parliament and the Shura Council donated BD100,000 each towards the Feena Khair (There is Good in Us) national campaign set up to help lessen the financial burden on people and businesses during the crisis, from part of the saving made by the cancellation of foreign travel.
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