SO 2017-45 Cabinet Act

 
WHEREAS it is the belief of the Parliament of the Union that the Cabinet of the Union should be reformed, reorganized, and re-energized;
WHEREAS it is also the belief of the Parliament of the Union that the Cabinet of the Union and itself should be more closely linked to better coordinate their efforts to bring and maintain prosperity to the Union;
BE IT ORDERED by the President of the Union, with the advice of the Senators of the Union in this Parliament assembled, as follows;-
 
Chapter I: Standing of the Prime Minister
Article 1
The Prime Minister is the Chair of the Cabinet, but is not part of that entity, though he may appoint Ministers at his pleasure.
 
Chapter II: Standing of Ministers
Article 2
The “Cabinet” is the group of nations serving as Ministers of the Union, excluding the Prime Minister.
 
Article 3
The right of Ministers to disobey the orders of the Prime Minister is preserved, but the Prime Minister may remove any Minister at any time according to his pleasure.
 
Article 4
Ministers must comply with the Laws and binding Motions of Parliament which request and require them to perform certain actions.
 
Article 5
Within a week of his appointment of any nation as Minister, and within a week of the opening of a new Parliament, the Prime Minister must introduce a Motion of Confidence in the said Minister to Parliament, unless such a Motion has already been introduced but has not been voted on by Parliament. If that Motion of Confidence fails due to a majority of votes being cast against the Motion at the Vote, he must remove the said Minister from his office within a week.

Article 6
Ministers are not automatically dismissed at the end of the Prime Minister's term, during Prime Ministerial Elections, or during extraordinary circumstances such as when a Prime Minister resigns, is removed from office, or otherwise ceases to hold office. Ministers may only be dismissed by a sitting Prime Minister.
 
Chapter III: Organization of Ministries
Article 7
Each Minister may organize his Ministry according to his wishes, and may create Departments within his Ministry to do so, but he must also comply with the Laws which create Departments within his Ministry and organize the said Ministry.
 
Article 8
Each Minister may appoint the staff of his Ministry at his own pleasure, unless a Law says otherwise.

Article 9
When a Minister resigns, is dismissed, is impeached, or otherwise ceases to hold office, the employees of that Ministry are not automatically dismissed.
 
Chapter IV: New Ministry
Article 10
The ministerial position of Leader of Parliament is hereby created in the Cabinet, and it is subject to all the Laws and Sections of the Constitution of the Union dealing with Ministers, but its office-holder must be at all times a Senator of Parliament.
 
Article 11
The Leader of Parliament is the voice of the Cabinet and Prime Minister in Parliament, and must defend the policy of the Cabinet in Parliament.
 
Article 12
The Leader of Parliament may introduce bills and motions to Parliament and they must be placed in line for debate by the Chair of Parliament even if they do not have the requisite number of co-sponsors as per SO#2016-03 (“Parliamentary Procedure Orders Act”).
 
Chapter V: Citation
Article 13
This Act may be cited as “[The] Cabinet Act 2017”.
 
July 7, 2017
The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Abdoa, MP LSM GSM

I like most of the proposal, and I think there are some really good ideas in it. Nevertheless, two things:

1) I would like to see a provision that states something like "The Ministers are not automatically dismissed at the end of the Prime Minister's term, during Prime Ministerial Elections, or during extraordinary circumstances when a Prime Minister resigns, is removed from office, or otherwise ceases to hold office. Ministers may only be dismissed by a sitting Prime Minister." This would allow the government to still function in the absence of a Prime Minister.

2) On a similar note, I think that the Ministries should be able to function when there is no sitting Minister. A clause that reads similar to the following would be beneficial: "When a Minister resigns, is dismissed, is impeached, or otherwise ceases to hold office, the employees of that Ministry are not automatically dismissed."

Done: see current Articles 6 and 9.

I would like to add my name as a Co-sponsor.

I too wish to co-sponsor this proposal.

I don't like the article 3 of Ch.2. I think the ministries can disobey, but the PM cannot dismiss a minister during his/her term without Senate's approval by majority or uninamity. It would be too easy for an eventual autoritarian PM to take off uncomfortable ministries and replace them with puppet ones.

The way the Constitution is worded implies that the Cabinet serves at the pleasure of the Prime Minister.  Take, for example, Article III, Section D, Subsection 2:

The Prime Minister has the authority to appoint and dismiss the Cabinet

and Article III, Section E, Subsection 1:

The Cabinet shall consist of Ministers that aid the Prime Minister and President.

Note that the authority to appoint and dismiss the Cabinet is delegated only to the Prime Minister, with the only exception being impeachment of a Minister by the Parliament.

While this may seem like it would allow for an authoritarian Prime Minister to stomp any opposition within the Cabinet, this is how many IRL Cabinets work.  Additionally, there is a failsafe: if the Prime Minister seems too authoritarian, the Parliament can simply impeach them.  Article II, Section F of the Constitution:

The Parliament may pass a Vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister and force him to resign.

Yes: the Cabinet is really supposed to be under the control of the Prime Minister - if you've got an effective PM, they're coordinating the various ministries' activities. And if Parliament doesn't like what the PM's doing, they can always pass a Motion of No Confidence (though they would have to be very organized about it, since the PM is the chair of Parliament, and could potentially delay its passage by assigning the longest debate times, putting other bills before it, and extending everything to a maximum - the opposition would have deal with that, so they really only can get rid of a PM if he's really just not doing a good job at all).