Rais said ministers’ attendance will be marked by the Senate’s secretary, adding that this was in line with Article 43(3) of the Federal Constitution on the Cabinet’s collective responsibility to Parliament.

“This matter has never been mentioned before but it is important that it is placed on record for the upper house to note this as a responsibility,” he said in a speech on the first day of Dewan Negara proceedings.

In March, Rais had ticked off the then minister and deputy minister of international trade and industry Azmin Ali and Lim Ban Hong over their absence during a question-and-answer session.

He said this was not in accordance with the Standing Orders and the questions raised to the ministry were important.

There was a similar issue in the Dewan Rakyat that same month, after then religious affairs minister Idris Ahmad filled in to answer questions on 1MDB and SRC International’s debt repayment issues that were supposed to be answered by the finance ministry.

Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who was the finance minister at the time, and his two deputies were absent in the lower house when the matter was brought up.

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