The Parliamentary Standing Committees will work weekends and allocate whole days on duty travel to entice more Fijians to make submissions.

Chairman for the Public Accounts as well as the Justice, Law and Human Rights Committee, Alvick Maharaj says they had initially looked at more advertising to ramp up public participation.

As a more comprehensive approach, Maharaj says they’re also going to tap into already established networks to get the word out whenever they travel outside of Suva for public submissions.

“This time around, we are actually using Turaga-Ni-Koros and Advisory Councils as well because they are the people on the ground, they will actually be going out to the villages and settlements encouraging people to actually come in.”

In addition to extended hours, committees will also hold information sessions on the Bills during public submission sessions to allow those interested to learn more about the proposed legislation.

Following the information sessions, those in attendance will be encouraged to make a submission on the Bill if they want to.