SUMMARY REPORT OF THE PLENARY SESSION OF JUNE 07, 2023

The year two thousand and twenty-three, on the seventh day of June, the senators met in the hemicycle of the Senate in Gitega for the 138^th plenary session of the sixth legislature to consider and adopt the following bills:

• Bill amending Law No. 1/17 of September 25, 2007 on the organization of the National Statistical System in Burundi;

• Bill revising the lawyers statute.

The session which was led by the First Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Honourable Denise NDADAYE, was attended by 32 senators and two representatives of the Government, namely the Minister of Finance, Mr. Audace NIYONZIMA and the Minister of Justice, Mrs. Domine BANYANKIMBONA. It began, as usual, with a prayer at 11:12 a.m.

In the introduction, the First Deputy Speaker of the Senate first welcomed the Honourable senators and then presented the modified programme of activities which were planned. This programme was adopted unanimously.

After a word of welcome addressed to the Minister in charge of finance, the opportunity was immediately given to him to present the preamble of the first bill under analysis.

In his presentation, the Minister indicated that the bill under analysis aims to provide clarification on the following elements:

• definition of the scope of official statistics;

• the professional independence of the producers of official statistics;

• mechanisms for consulting users of official statistics;

• coordination and statistical programmes;

• circumscription of the principle of prior application for the statistical visa.

After the preamble and the report of the referred committee, the floor was given to the Honourable senators to ask questions for more clarification.

To the question to know why some World Organizations publish erroneous figures on Burundi’s statistical data, the Minister replied that, from 2015 until 2020, our country was not on good terms with them, a reason is why the statistical data they published on Burundi came from other sources.

To the question to know when Burundi will be equipped with a modern infrastructure for the conservation of statistical data, the Minister informed the Honourable senators that the site of the latter is under construction.

To the question to know what the ministry plans to improve the method of collecting statistical data, the representative of the Government replied that the State has already started the programme of digitalization of all public sectors in order to have reliable data.

At the end of these clarifications, the bill was put to the vote and adopted unanimously by the 39 voting senators, among whom 32 present and 7 proxies.

The session continued with the presentation of the preamble of the second bill by the Minister of Justice, Mrs. Domine BANYAKIMBONA.

In her presentation, the Minister explained that the bill under review will bring innovations in the direction of updating the statute governing the profession of lawyers in order to meet the requirements of the moment. She said key innovations include the following:

• to adapt the law in relation to the BMD system (baccalaureate, master, doctorate) in order to provide a response that is at least adapted to the incessant requests of the bachelors of law from various universities in Burundi who want to pursue a career as lawyers;

• to  organise mandatory continuing professional training for all active lawyers;

• to set up a coordination framework for these bars to deal with any disputes which may arise between lawyers from different bars.

• to allow real cross-border mobility of Burundian lawyers in the sub-region and in other regional groups

After the preamble and the report of the referred committee, questions and contributions were expressed by senators within the framework of the general debate.

Regarding Burundian lawyers who have difficulty expressing themselves in the official languages used in the East African Community countries or elsewhere, the Minister replied that the law has just opened the horizons for Burundian lawyers to practice this profession in those countries. It is therefore up to them to learn these languages, says Domine BANYANKIMBONA.

As to the sanctions provided for a lawyer defaulting towards his client, Minister Domine BANYANKIMBONA said that a lawyer is a citizen like others and is subject to the sanctions provided for by Burundian law in the event of legal proceedings, except that he enjoys a privilege of jurisdiction.

With regard to lawyers who present complaints in French when the opposing party does not understand this language, the Minister explained that the law authorizes any party to require the translation of the complaints brought against him into the language they understands.

Regarding the current situation of the tariffs of fees that lawyers charge their clients, the representative of the Government replied that the tariffs differ from one lawyer to another, but that this bill in review comes to harmonize these tariffs.

To the question to know whether being a full-time teacher for a lawyer would not be incompatible with the profession of lawyer, the Minister indicated that it is a highlighted exception insofar as it is an activity which fits well with the career development.

After these clarifications, the bill was put to the vote and adopted unanimously by the 39 votes cast.

 The session, which took place in an atmosphere of perfect understanding ended at 2:43 p.m. with a prayer.