• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Bundesversammlung Assemblée fédérale Assemblea federale Federal Assembly And meanwhile, backstage … When you pace up and down the corridors of the Federal Parliament you normally meet three identifiable types of staff: the visitors’ guides, the security guards and the ushers. The first type, who are not in uniform, point out the Three Swiss Men who greet you – with just a hint of disapproval – at the top of the staircase in the entrance hall. They also explain the meaning of the friezes that decorate the walls and tell you the origin of the marble under your feet. They also point out that the arms of the Jura – which became an independent canton only in 1978 – have evidently not been given a place in the circle of cantonal arms that deco- rate the dome above the entrance hall. They sit there all alone under a nearby archway. If you turn round during your guided tour you will see that a young man or woman in a light blue uniform and carrying a weapon is following your every step throughout the tour. This is the second and highly visible group of employees that haunt the building. They will make sure that you don’t lose your way in the labyrinth of corridors, of course, but will also kindly point you towards the lavatories should you need them. Until the famous shooting in the Zug cantonal parliament in 2001 it was relatively easy to enter the federal parliament building, but now you have to show identity and justify your visit. The third category of employees which you cannot miss, especially when parliament is sit- ting, is of course the ushers, recognisable in their bottle-green uniforms. You will see them moving around the benches of the National Council chamber or the Council of States cham- ber, distributing post or documents to the members of parliament, passing on messages from outside or making sure that every member has a bottle of mineral water within reach. When parliament is not sitting you will find them lurking in the lobbies of the committee rooms, look- ing after the every needs of committee members and ensuring that their meetings are kept confidential. These are just the most obvious members of the staff of 300 who fill the 215 jobs in the par- liament building. They have multiplied in number by a factor of almost 8 over the past three decades. “When I started working here, that was in 1976, there were only about 40 of us”, recalls Vitus Ritler, head of the parliamentary ushers, who clearly has a certain nostalgia for the family atmosphere that prevailed in the old days. As numbers have grown, the staff has spread well beyond the confines of the Federal Parliament. They have infiltrated the adjoin- ing buildings occupied by the various federal offices and spread to the neighbouring streets. Feeling somewhat cramped in this environment, which turns into a real hive of activity during the four annual parliamentary sessions (one per season) plus any extraordinary sessions that are required, the members of parliament actually approved a sum of CHF 35 million for the construction of a brand-new press centre opposite the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. This means that journalists no longer occupy precious space in the Federal Parlia- ment, although they still have two rooms there that are reserved for their exclusive use. They still clutter up the lobby, harassing the ushers until they bring out parliamentarians from the chamber in the hope of getting answers to their questions, comments and confidences. The acute problem of space in the parliament building became especially serious in 1992 when 24 permanent committees – 12 per chamber – were set up. While their task is to en- sure better monitoring of the federal administration, which has been steadily expanding over the years, and to improve legislative activities, their creation necessitated in turn the setting up of specialised secretariats. These offices collaborate closely with the chairs of the commit- tees, who prepare meetings, draw up reports and ensure that the members of the commit- tees are provided with adequate documentation. These men and women, who are often high- ly qualified, work in the shadows and enable the members of parliament to deal with the enormous amount of work that they are given, even when parliament is not sitting. The Parliamentary Control of the Administration (PCA) is without any doubt a special case among the staff that provide the back-up for the political activities of the committees and is a perfect example of the magnanimity and the constraint of the men and women who devote their working lives to this cause. To illustrate the work of the PCA, its head, Daniel Janett, likes to quote the following anec- dote from Britain’s colonial history. In order to deal with an invasion of snakes, the British Raj offered a reward for each snake’s head handed in to the authorities. The result was that the Indian population started breeding cobras to provide the heads and collect the money. This little story illustrates perfectly how a public policy based on the best of intentions can go haywire. The task of Daniel Janett and his staff of five at the PCA is to identify any such shambles. This department of the federal administration was set up in 1991, shortly before the perma- nent committees were introduced. At various times – in particular when the secret federal files on private individuals were discovered – members of parliament were made aware of their lack of control over the federal administration, which had meanwhile expanded consid- erably and become interventionist. The PCA was therefore set up to provide support for the parliamentary Control Committees, alongside the secretariats of the Control Committees and the Finance Committee (FC), a much older institution. Unlike the PCA, the FC operates in- dependently of the two chambers of parliament and the Federal Council, but reports to the Finance Delegation. The PCA is not independent in that it reports to the Control Committees of the two chambers. “We work on the basis of tasks allotted to us by the parliamentary committees”, explains Daniel Janett. Nonetheless, the PCA submits proposals to committee members. You have to have a nose for the job: issues have to be selected for investigation which correspond to the concerns of the parliamentary world. But in a world where the general public is becoming more discerning as to the performance of public bodies there is no lack of such concerns. One shouldn’t imagine that the PCA operates like the Spanish inquisition, however. The at- mosphere in the PCA offices close to the Federal Parliament is quiet and serious, more like a university library than a police station. The team is made up of geographers, economists and political scientists. “We use internationally recognised methods in our evaluations”, Daniel Janett emphasises. Having clear criteria for their job is essential for gaining the trust of all parties concerned. It must be said, however, that the federal administration does not always 2 welcome the PCA investigators. “But generally any scepticism disappears quite quickly once they’ve understood that we operate according to strict regulations”, explains the head of the PCA. This does not mean that their investigations leave everyone satisfied, however. The report on the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Sites of Historical and Natural Interest published in 2003, for example, caused some bad feeling among many parliamentarians. To put it politely but clearly, the PCA concluded that the policy aimed at preserving sites of natural interest is a failure. The report not only criticises the imbalance between the resources used and the ambitious aims but also points out that the fact that the inclusion of sites in the inventory has often not prevented their deterioriation. In short, if the policy has not led to action as counter- productive as breeding cobras, it has been equally ineffective. Hugo Fasel, Chairman of the National Council Control Committee in 2004-2005, feels that the PCA deserves full marks for its work. “They do a good job which is extremely useful for us”, says the National Councillor from Fribourg. A job which enables parliamentarians to shine when the results are presented, the real authors of the report remaining modestly in the shadows. But the mission of the PCA can well be considered a “noble” task in that it is still a political one. Other more mundane tasks are the daily bread of many other employees who work for the two chambers. Printing and distributing papers, for example. And here we enter the bow- els of the parliament building. Seen from the square in front, this massive building does not give the impression that it has four storeys below ground, camouflaged in the wall that looks out over the River Aare. The little printing room ruled by Werner Kuenzi is in the first-floor basement, right next to the dispatch room. Despite the enormous progress made by information technology and the in- ternet over recent years, paper is still paramount in the Swiss parliament. “We use about 130 pallets per year”, Werner Kuenzi informs us, his eyes twinkling over his reading glasses. “We make about 7 million copies a year!” That’s just about one copy per head of the Swiss popu- lation, including babies and foreigners. Parliamentary bills, minutes, documents drawn up by the various committees: week after week there is a real avalanche of paper that lands on the desks of the 246 elected members of the Federal Assembly. All these papers are sent out by post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “We send about 1 kg of documentation to each member of parliament every week”, explains Vitus Ritler, who also supervises the dispatch room.

Load more

  7

Copy Link