By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- THE Senate Committee on Legislative Agenda  has stressed the urgent need to fast bills and motions to curtail waste of time, energy and resources against the backdrop that between  1999 and 2003, only 293 bills were passed by the red chambers while the House of Representatives passed 483 bills within the same period under review.

The Committee also revealed  that only 205 bills harmonised and assented to become Acts of Parliament within that period, just as it said  that there was the need for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to collaborate to avoid such colossal waste in the 8th National Assembly.

The Senate has moved to stop all Senators from accepting bribe in form of patronage or gratification from Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, heads of parastatals, departments and agencies when they go  on oversight functions, just as the Senators have been asked to maintain high level of integrity, discipline and moral principles at all times.

According to the Senate, to achieve this, the function of oversight must be taken very seriously through the provision of funds to enable standing Committees carry out their functions without input from Ministries, departments and agencies under their jurisdiction.

The Senate has also planned to adopt an electronic approach called E- Parliament to manage proceedings at the National Assembly through online information sharing system as that would also create an electronic forum for e- Democratic dialogue among citizens and politicians, just as the upper Chambers moves adopt an E- Voting to ensure transparency and accountability thereby restoring the credibility of the voting activities in the system.

These were some of the recommendations contained in the report of the Ar- hoc Committee on Legislative Agenda which has the Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume as Chairmen, with seventeen other Senators as members.

Other members are Senators Bala Ibn Na Allah; Sonny Ogbuoji; Tayo Alasoadura; Uche Ekwunife; Hope Uzodinma; Ben Murray- Bruce; George Sekibo; John Owan Enoh; Mohammed Hassan and Babajide Omoworare.

Others are Senators Binta Masi Garba; Kabiru Gaya; Shehu Sani;

Senate President Bukola Saraki had on Thursday, June 25, 2015 constituted the Ad- Hoc Committee to among other terms of reference, develop an agenda that will be the compass for directing the activities of the 8th Senate.

 According to the report which Vanguard obtained,  the Senate plans to establish an electronic Archive and a Museum to have historical gallery from 1999 to date, just as the Committee has also recommended for both the Budget office and National Planning Commission to be merged for optimal output, just as the Senate said it would move forward with timelines aimed at proper budget Implementation.