PPP declines participation in Parliamentary Sub-Committee

Apr 14, 2014 News

Opposition Leader David Granger has said that the ad hoc Sub-Committee which was suggested by House Speaker Raphael Trotman to facilitate tripartite consultations over the concerns of the 2014 Budget during the Committee of Supply is not functioning properly.
The Committee of Supply is where the parties in the National Assembly scrutinize the individual estimates contained in the Budget.
In fact Granger elucidated that the Sub-Committee is “dead in the water” because the governing party, the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), has chosen not to take part within the said committee.

General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee

Granger outlined that APNU was willing to take the $1.1Billion that was budgeted for the Amerindian Development Fund and which the combined opposition disapproved, to the sub-Committee so that the concerns of government and the combined opposition could be addressed and possibly resolved but the PPP did not participate.
According to the Opposition leader, APNU had concerns with the way in which the moneys allocated towards the Amerindian fund were being spent, moreso against the backdrop of the complaints that the coalition received from the Amerindian villagers to which the $1.1B would’ve been allocated.
The government however had said that was not the case and accused the combined opposition of politicking to justify cutting the $1.1B which was budgeted for Amerindian development.
General Secretary of the PPP/C Clement Rohee speaking on why his party did not participate in the Speaker’s suggested Sub-Committee, said that it was not consistent with the Standing Orders (a collection of the permanent written rules adopted by the House to govern its proceedings) of the National Assembly.
“We didn’t know how consistent that mechanism is with the Standing Orders. Everything in this Parliament is guided by the Standing Orders and we need to know clearly the consistency of whatever mechanisms are established with the Standing Orders of the National Assembly,” said Rohee.
He said further that the PPP “took a conscious decision that we are not going to be part of any mechanisms set up that are not consistent with the Standing Orders.”
According to Rohee, the Sub-Committee was described to the House as just being an opinion and he said that “we cannot be guided by opinions because these are serious decisions we are being called upon to take, so there was no prior consultation of the establishment of such a mechanism.”

Leader of the APNU David Granger

Additionally the General Secretary of the PPP said that “we reserve the right as a constituent body in this National Assembly to determine whether we should or should not participate in a body that has been established without due consultation with us.”
Going forward, APNU’s Leader, Granger said that any consultations concerning an issue within the Committee of Supply will have to be aired on the floor of the National Assembly because the PPP is not taking part within the committee and “you can’t have a tripartite committee without one party participating… it’s not functioning, but the APNU still wants it to function.”
He thought it was a useful Committee to prevent clashes and collisions in the National Assembly. Granger acknowledged that the said Committee was not provided for in the Standing Orders of Parliament but “we were willing to take part within the committee because we want a good budget.”