Draft Law Gives Parliament Three Months to Close Its Books

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Extra time for Parliament to close its books will go before MPs on Tuesday, under a draft law giving the Council of Representatives three months, instead of 30 days, to submit its audited final accounts.

The proposal would amend Article 219 of Decree-Law 54 of 2002 on the Council’s Rules of Procedure. Under the revised text, the General Secretariat would prepare the Council’s final account, have it audited and send it to the Speaker within three months of the end of the financial year. The Speaker would then refer it to the Bureau of the Council, which may in turn pass it to the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee before it is laid before the full chamber for discussion and approval.

In its report on the draft, the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee says the longer window is intended to give the Council more room to produce accurate audited figures, ease the load on the General Secretariat and allow the National Audit Office to complete its work within the time allowed in law. The committee adds that it does not expect any specific negative financial effect and that the extra time should help the departments responsible for the Council’s accounts to do their work more efficiently.

The move comes as a law proposal tabled by the Council of Representatives itself. One of its main aims is to bring the handling of the Council’s own final account into line with the approach taken to the final accounts of government bodies in Bahrain. As things stand, the Rules of Procedure give the General Secretariat thirty days after the close of the financial year to prepare the final account before it is passed to the Speaker and then to the Bureau and, where needed, to the financial committee.

In a written opinion attached to the draft, the government says it values the goals the Council is seeking and stresses the need for co-operation between the executive and the legislature. It notes that the legislature has wide scope to regulate rights unless the Constitution itself draws clear limits. The provisions of the Rules of Procedure, including Article 219, are based on Article 94(b) of the Constitution, which allows each chamber to add supplementary rules to the law that organises it.

The memorandum recalls Decree-Law 15 of 2002 on the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives, which lays down joint rules for both chambers and provides in Article 43 that each council has its own budget, with a single line in the state budget for its allocation. Each chamber’s Rules of Procedure, under that law, lays down how its annual budget is prepared, examined and approved, how its accounts are organised and how its final account is drawn up and endorsed, without being bound by government accounting rules. Within that framework, the proposed amendment is presented as an adjustment to the timetable for the Council’s own accounts.

The government also links the draft to the constitutional timetable for the state’s final account. Article 113 requires the state’s final account for the previous year to be submitted first to the Council of Representatives within five months of the end of the financial year, then approved by both chambers with their observations before it is published in the Official Gazette. Article 114 allows further legislation to extend these arrangements to independent and attached public budgets and to the accounts of municipalities and local public bodies.

Beyond the Constitution, the memorandum states that the proposal sits in line with Decree-Law 39 of 2002 on the state budget, which acts as the main reference for Bahrain’s public finances. Article 48 of that law requires ministers and heads of government entities to provide the Finance Ministry with audited annual financial statements within three months of the end of the financial year. Moving the Council’s own deadline to the same three-month period would, in the government’s view, bring it into line with that standard.

To support this reading, the government cites a number of laws that already fix similar periods for sending final accounts to Parliament. Law 22 of 2023 on the Unemployment Insurance Fund requires the audited report on the fund’s account to be sent to the Council of Representatives within five months of year-end and then approved by both chambers before publication. Law 28 of 2006 on the Future Generations Reserve sets the same five-month period for the final account of that reserve, which must also be audited by the National Audit Office. Under Law 64 of 2006 on the Central Bank of Bahrain and financial institutions, the Governor must submit to the board within three months of year-end a report on the Central Bank’s activities and a copy of its audited final account, together with the external auditor’s report.

The government further notes that the wording now proposed for the Council of Representatives matches an amendment already applied to the Shura Council. Law 23 of 2023 revised Article 180 of Decree-Law 55 of 2002 on the Shura Council’s Rules of Procedure so that its General Secretariat has three months from the end of the financial year to prepare the chamber’s audited final account and send it to the President, who then refers it to the Bureau before it reaches the floor. Bringing Article 219 of the Council of Representatives’ Rules into line with that model would keep the two chambers on the same footing.

On this basis, the government concludes that the draft law fits Bahrain’s wider legislative approach both to the organisation of the two chambers and to the handling of public accounts. It raises no objection and formally agrees to the text in the light of the reasons set out in its memorandum.

Inside Parliament, the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee has examined the bill article by article. It backs the title as proposed, accepts the preamble without change and supports the new wording of Article 219, along with the clause stating that the law will take effect from the day after publication in the Official Gazette. The committee recommends approval in principle of the draft.