It is almost a fortnight already, since the National Assembly went into session to discuss the national budget for the 2015 financial year.

No one doubts the importance of the session, especially as it affects the life of the whole nation. But the bad news is that as at the time of writing this editorial, parliamentarians of the National Assembly were yet to receive this budget proposal for scrutiny.

This means that after the usual flamboyant opening session dominated more by the customary sager-coated speech from the House Speaker, the lines went dead. Government was yet to submit to the Assembly and no one seems to bother, that the MPs have been idle for close to two weeks of their stay in Yaounde.

We have no pity for them that they are idle, but we are only worried that the state has to shoulder the cost of their idle stay in Yaounde while government tends to pretend that it does not recognise the fact that it is violating the rules of the House that the finance bill must be submitted to the House fifteen days in advance before the National Assembly is convened.

It is unrecorded that this has been occurring for as long as the National Assembly has been in existence for more than fifty years now. It has since become a ploy for government to kind of ambush parliamentarians by submitting draft bills at the rush hour, not giving them enough time to properly study these draft bills.

Once in a while, some members of the House have complained against this practice, particularly members of the opposition. The outcome, as it would be expected is that their voices usually get drowned.

This time around, opposition members, particularly the SDF, in a bid to keep the House busy, presented a few private member bills, which of-course the rules of the House permit, but even here, such bills were thrown out with impunity.

In our last editorial, we mentioned the position of some parliamentarians who had vowed to take government ministers to task during this current session over the issue of government inability to attain the necessary percentage in the realisation of the public investment budget.

We do not want to believe that the MPs avowed intention to confront government has sent jitters across. Our only fear is that figures may be tempered with to justify their actions.

The must disgusting part of the government actions is that even the Settlement Bill to justify income and expenditures of the just ending financial year was only sent to the House over the weekend. According to the 2007 finance law, this bill should have been ready since August and forwarded to the Audit Bench for validation before being transmitted to the House with the necessary recommendations.

The whole scenario should be seen by right thinking Cameroonians as a dent in our parliamentary democracy and a display of arrogance by the executive which sees itself as a clan far above reproach or as an arm that can overturn the rules with impunity.

In short, the Executive has broken the rules by not presenting the draft budget to the assembly fifteen days before convening the session.

It would therefore not surprise anyone that in the last few days to the end of the session, the draft bill will be rushed to the House, where it has no other alternative course than to pass the bill as usual in its original form. This is where government ambush on parliamentarians finds it location.

We strongly condemned the levity and laxity with which government handles draft bills, leading to a situation where parliamentarians are not given enough time to study the bills. It will be more appreciated if government gives prompt attention to draft bills in order that they pass through the process as required by law.

The Speaker of the House also deserves a word or two of caution. Oversights such as this remove from the assembly the confidence reposed on you and can only lead to the suspicion they must share the blame.

For those MPs who vowed to take these ministers to task, let it not end up being just a frightening loud voice of a dog that barks and never bites.