Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698832423244.pdf (Sierra Leone)
1st August 2022 E-mail: sierraleoneparliament@hotmail.com/admin@parliament.gov.sl PRESS RELEASE PARLIAMENTARY RESEARCH UNIT LAUNCHES ITS PROPOSAL ON PRIMARY RESEARCH The Parliamentary Research Unit of the Department of Programmes, Research and Partnership (DePReP), headed by Gilbert Bosco N'habay has today Monday 01/08/2022 at the New Administrative Building in Parliament officially launched its primary research proposal solely funded by the Parliament of Sierra Leone with a view to gauging citizens understanding about the conventional roles of Members of Parliament.
In summation, the research topic hinges on "an investigation into the level of public knowledge by constituents on the conventional roles of Members of Parliament".

Calling the meeting to order, Director of Parliamentary and Public Relations Department, Sheku Lamin Turay said that the proposed research would mark a watershed moment given other research works which had been done on Parliament by other actors over the years.
Welcoming participants, Principal Research Officer Paul Turay said the aim of the launch was mainly to rollout the research exercise in selected constituencies in the 16 demographic districts of Sierra Leone, and 25 constituencies across the country.

He also said that the exercise was in line with the Strategic Plan of Parliament.
Speaking on behalf of the Clerk of Parliament, Director of Parliamentary Budget Office, Ibrahim Jimissa said public expectations were different from the conventional roles of Members of Parliament.

He also said that he was hopeful that the product of the research would be used judiciously, and called on new staff of the Department to learn new skills and put them into perspective.

Speaking on the importance of the research proposal, Chairman of the Legislative Committee in Parliament, Hon.
Abdul Sulaiman Marray-Conteh said that it would show citizens understanding and their expectations from their Members of Parliament.

He thanked Leadership and Administration of Parliament for supporting the proposed research noting that it would help you to know what you did not know in order to take further action.

Chairman of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development, Hon.
Aaron Aruna Koroma said he impressed with the initiative that Parliament was about to undertake relative to gauging citizens understanding about the conventional roles of Members of Parliament.

He said it was coming at a time when CSOs had vilified Parliament on many occasions, without paying attention to Section 97 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone which deals with the responsibilities of Members of Parliament in terms of representation.
Speaking on retaining vibrant MPs like in other Legislatures, he intimated that attrition rate in our circumstances was becoming burdensome on the State.

Leader of C4C, Hon.

Saa Emerson Lamina said he hopes the research would show the level of citizens understanding about the conventional roles of Members of Parliament.
Recalled the development function of Members of Parliament before the enactment of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone which removed development function from Parliament and placed it in the hands of the Executive Arm of Government.

He also said that MPs were to serve as a bridge between the people and the Government.
However, he blamed CSOs for failing to educate the masses on the new conventional roles of Members of Parliament and for demonizing the Constituency Development Fund which resulted in a high attrition rate in the last Parliament.

On data collection, he called on the research unit to employ the 7 pillars of sociology during the course of information gathering.

Director of DePReP, Gilbert Bosco N'habay did a presentation on the research outline.
Parliamentary and Public Relations Department Parliament of Sierra Leone +23278495023/+23278625960/+23278426851/+23278697776