KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Budget allocations for 11 ministries were passed at the committee level in the sixth week of the Dewan Rakyat sitting.
It involved the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Ministry of Works; the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives; the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture; the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation; and the Ministry of Health.
Other ministries included the Ministry of Human Resources; the Ministry of Transport; the Ministry of International Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Communications and Digital; and the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.
Also passed in this week’s sitting was the motion to set up 10 new Special Parliamentary Select Committees for the current term, tabled by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
It involved the Special Select Committees on Finance and Economics; Health; Domestic Trade, Entrepreneurship, Cost of Living and Agriculture; Infrastructure, Transport and Communications; and Nation Building, Education, and Human Resource Development.
The others were the Special Select Committees on Women, Children and Community; Environment, Science and Plantation; Security, International Relations and International Trade; and Human Rights, Elections and Institutional Reform.
The special committees will function as a check and balance mechanism for the ministries.
Meanwhile, Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul announced that the Dewan Rakyat’s second meeting of the second session of the 15th Parliament, which was originally scheduled for June 12 to June 27, would instead take place from May 22 to June 15.
According to him, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as the leader of the House, had agreed to the change, in line with Standing Order 11(2) of the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders.
Johari said this was following his request to the Prime Minister as many members of Parliament would be performing the Haj in Makkah this year and needed to make appropriate preparations.
— Bernama
