Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem has criticised Parliament for acting as both an accuser and a judge in matters involving bribery allegations against its members.

In an interview on JoyNews' The Pulse on Wednesday, January 29, he argued that such an approach undermines fairness and transparency.

“Parliament should not always constitute itself into a court. You are the accusers or the complainant, like this is made against you. You are the complainant, and you invite the person to come before you and admit that he’s at fault...It doesn't make sense. They need to stop that,” he said.

His comments follow Parliament’s decision to summon activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor to appear before the Appointments Committee to substantiate allegations that the committee had been demanding money from ministerial nominees in exchange for their approval.

The activist’s claims were strongly refuted by the committee, leading to his appearance before them on Wednesday, where he ultimately apologised.

However, Mr Azeem believes that if Parliament was genuinely concerned about the allegations, it should have initiated an independent investigation rather than handling the matter internally.

“If they are really worried, they should ask an independent matter, a person or group, to investigate the matter, and not to constitute themselves into a court and try the guy who accused them of having done something wrong. That definitely is not right,” he stressed.