THE PARLIAMENT OF EQUATORIAL GUINEA MOVES TOWARDS GREATER TRANSPARENCY

Parliaments have long endeavoured to provide as much information as possible on their activities, for the sake of the transparency that is key to any democracy. By the same token, people are constantly demanding greater access to information on the activities of their elected representatives.

One means by which parliaments can provide information is to record and publish their deliberations. Besides allowing citizens to learn about the work of parliament and to take part in it, if they wish, transcribing parliamentary debates provides parliamentarians with a crucial means of performing their oversight duties. It also serves to build up an institutional memory.

While many parliaments use highly specialized and sophisticated technology to transcribe debates, many others, notably in developing countries, do not. The Parliament of Equatorial Guinea falls into the latter category, as the IPU realized in the course of its project, financed by the European Commission and the Government of Equatorial Guinea, to assist the Parliament. In an effort to remedy this shortcoming, the IPU launched a programme to train a dozen stenotype operators and précis-writers. The programme will end in July 2007, after 17 months of intensive courses dispensed by two instructors. In order to ensure their training is used to the best advantage, the trainees have access to state-of-the-art information technology (stenotype machines and computers), thanks to which they can familiarize themselves with Transcription of Computer-Aided Stenotopy (TCAS) techniques.

The programme has recently been evaluated, and the results indicate a very high success rate among the participants. This means the Parliament of Equatorial Guinea will have a team of agents familiar with the most modern transcription techniques. In order to guarantee the investment's long-term viability, the IPU is paying special attention to the maintenance of the material made available in connection with the programme. One of the trainees is to be placed in charge of maintenance and has received the requisite training.