The Parliament should not stop functioning amidst the crisis of COVID-19
The parliament stopped working following the declaration of the national emergency in the country on March 21, 2020. Neither in the way of committee, plenary or any other format of hearing does the parliament function; nor is it engaged in the deliberation of the important issues or drawing up the strategies relating to the pandemic.
The Georgian Government, under the supervision of the Prime Minister, succeeds, so far, in combating pandemic by regular meetings of the Coordination Council and informing the public, while the share of the work done by the Georgian Parliament in this regard is quite nominal and is only limited by occasional press briefings done by several parliament members. The fact that one member of the parliament attends the sittings of the coordination council, cannot be deemed as effective exercise of the whole parliamentary mandate.
The unprecedented situation of the pandemic seriously affects a wide range of sectors of economy and human well-being. The situation gets even more precarious when the world faces the new type of Coronavirus, that is little known by the specialists and combat and defeat it on the one hand and finding effective ways of reducing the harm resulted by the grave economic disruption on the other is a great challenge even for all of the developed countries in the world.
In this situation it becomes more important to the Parliament of Georgia to be the venue of the public debate on the issues in relation with the defeating the virus and reducing the economic damage, helping the most vulnerable and those who are left without incomes.
The role of the parliament is not limited just to declaring the state of emergency and delegating a whole lot of powers to the government as it happened in Georgia. In a democratic society even in the state of the national emergency the parliament remains the representative body of the people with its highest legitimacy and continues its work during emergency in law making as well as in government oversight.
In the current situation the Georgian Parliament should deliberate and oversee a whole lot of issues emerged today as challenging and problematic, for example,
- setting the strategic plans in defeating the virus and reducing the harm caused by it in public health care, economy, and finances;
- finding the ways to stop inflation of the Georgian currency in cooperation with the National Bank;
- many more emerging issues yet to become the public concerns.
Thus, during the state of emergency when the government is given unusually vast power to rule the country, and by doing so, at some point it is running the risk of threatening democracy and human rights, the parliament has completely left it without any level of oversight.
Only one committee hearing can be mentioned as a good example, held on March 20, 2020. The Committee of the Issues of the Diaspora and the Caucasus deliberated the situation resulted from the pandemic worldwide and in this regard, discussed the conditions of Georgian citizens and diaspora representatives being abroad at the moment. The committee listened to the representative of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs.
Recommendations:
The parliament should resume the plenary and committee hearings or work in other formats as necessary during the emergency and following all the recommendations to prevent virus infection and transmission of it (online working, distancing, personal hygiene, providing disinfection of the parliament area in a proper timing, etc).
The parliament should deliberate all the issues of critical importance pertaining to the emergency including strategic issues of combating and defeating the virus as well as the oversight of the government.
The Parliament should consider the reasonableness of setting up the temporary joint commission, committee or working group in any other format in order to set the policy towards the public health care, finances, economy, and the education in this framework and distribute the carrying out measures among the parliament and the government.
The Parliament should invite and listen to the President of the National Bank, the Minister of the Finances and Economy, and other respective government officials to study the current situation and discuss the preventive plans to minimize the threats.
To regularly update the public on the measures carried out by the parliament to combat pandemic, the Chair of the Parliament should conduct the press briefings regularly.