Granger maintains position that CJ’s Budget Cut ruling is flawed

Feb 09, 2014 News

“The Chief Justice is not divine, he is not omniscient and he could have very well made a mistake.”

“A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) does not seek premature election; we are looking forward to a full term for tenth Parliament, the life of which will come to an end in 2016. In the mean time we are going to take every reasonable measure to ensure that the country is properly governed and if it means going to a national election we will go to a national election.”

Opposition Leader, David Granger

This is according to Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, who on Friday maintained that “we are not going to put up with the sort of lawlessness that has been threatening this country for the last 20 years.”
Meanwhile, as it relates to the imminent budget debate and deliberation, Granger maintained that the recent ruling by Chief Justice (Ag), Ian Chang, has not changed the policy of APNU as it relates to how it will treat with the National Estimates.
“We do not feel the ruling is applicable to internal workings of the National Assembly. We have Standing Orders which have the force of law and we feel that we will continue to behave as we have behaved in the past.”
Granger told reporters that “if a matter is brought before the National Assembly and we are asked whether we disagree or we agree, whether we approve or disapprove, the members of the National Assembly will vote in accordance with the interest of the country, if we disapprove we will say we disapprove.”
According to Granger, “I would like to see which court would convert a disapproval by National Assembly into approval…I would like to see which court will convert 33 votes into 32 votes.”
The Opposition Leader is adamant that the court has no jurisdiction to rule on certain internal matters affecting the National Assembly. Speaker, Raphael Trotman, will determine what those matters are.
Granger posited that it is possible that the Chief Justice might be unfamiliar with some aspects of Parliamentary Management and Administration and it is possible that he might have erred.
“The Chief Justice is not divine, he is not omniscient and he could have very well and made a mistake,” the Opposition Leader suggested.
“What I know is that when a matter is brought before the National Assembly and the Speaker puts a question to us, we will vote, and if the Speaker asks us if we approve or if we disapprove we will record that approval or disapproval.”
Asked about voting down the entire Budget, thus forcing fresh General Elections, Granger explained that that is not how the process works.
He said that the estimates are presented item by item in the Committee of Supply and at the end of the process the Appropriation Bill is voted on.

Chief Justice (Ag),
Ian Chang

Granger said that, the Appropriation Bill is the sum total of approvals in the Committee and that the Finance Minister cannot bring a Bill and include those items that would have been voted down.
“We will not approve an Appropriation Bill if we don’t approve of it,” warned Granger.