Latest update January 25th, 2025 7:00 AM
Latest News
- Gov’t to add $5.9M in debt to every household by the end of 2025- Shadow Finance Minister
- Speaker blocks Opposition Chief Whip from highlighting allegations of corruption by VP Jagdeo, Ministers, Police Force
- US military aircraft deport migrants as Pentagon readies more troops for border
- Pick-up driver dies in blaze after crash with truck at Bartica
- Police officer, former GRA staff found guilty of computer forgery
No sitting of the House in two months… Nagamootoo’s ‘justification’ disappointing and dishonest
– Opposition Chief Whip
Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira is disappointed in the response recently submitted by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in justifying why Government would not be holding a sitting of the National Assembly for two months.
After dissecting his comments and showing how “ridiculous” they are, Teixeira came to the conclusion that the Leader of the House is being dishonest with the nation.
The Member of Parliament said that the practice in the 11th Parliament of some discussion between the government and the opposition, with regards to the date for a parliamentary sitting, has been largely dispensed with. She said that it was because of this state of affairs by Government that on March 10 it came as a surprise to the opposition members when they learned that there would be no sitting for the next 56 days.
Teixeira said, “Let us examine each of the justifications presented by the Leader of the House for the decision to hold the next sitting until May. The first reason he gave was the number of Parliamentary training programmes. But the reality is that there are two only parliamentary programmes scheduled for March 31 to April 1, 2016 and another from April 4 to 8, 2016. Neither of which will interfere with a sitting.”
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo
Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira
She added, “Nagamootoo pointed out that the Speaker of the House, Dr. Barton Scotland and nine members of the Parliament Office will be travelling on an official visit to the UK House of Commons. However, this trip is scheduled for April 16 to 22. Again this does not justify why there could not be a sitting before April 16 or after April 23.”
The Opposition Chief Whip then pointed to the third point raised by the Prime Minister which essentially said that the Opposition failed to name a Deputy Speaker, so there can be no sitting while Dr. Scotland is away.
To this reasoning, Teixeira retorted, “The Leader of the House seems to be unaware of the Standing Orders 4 (1) which allows in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker for the election of a Speaker by the Assembly for that sitting…The only condition is that it cannot be a Minister or a Parliamentary Secretary. In fact, this Standing Order was invoked in the ninth Parliament when both Speaker Ramkarran and Deputy Speaker Riehl were both unavailable.”
The politician argued that this is the second time in the 11th Parliament of less than a year, that the Government seems to be unenthusiastic about having sittings. She said that the public needs to be reminded that there was no sitting from October 22, 2015 to December 17, 2015.
Teixeira asserted that what the Leader of the House failed to disclose is the hectic overseas travel schedule of Members of the government in this upcoming period which would “compromise” their fragile “one-seat majority.”
She said that knowing their (APNU+AFC) vulnerability, the People’s Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C) would not be surprised if this trend of “few and far between” sittings continues.
She said that the spurious justification by the government to link these gaps between parliamentary sittings with the November 2014 prorogation is not only totally irrelevant to the 11th Parliament but duplicitous.
The Opposition Member expressed that the Government has such a thin, sparse and unimaginative parliamentary agenda that one would not be incorrect to deduce that it seems to only regard the National Assembly of any use when it comes to pass the annual budgets.
“The last sitting on March 10 was a colossal waste of money lasting only one hour. There was nothing on the agenda that was urgent. Nor did the government use the opportunity of that sitting to table any new bills, motions or even the COI report on the death of Dr. Walter Rodney. The Leader of the House and the government should be embarrassed with their parliamentary agenda or lack thereof in the 11th Parliament,” the Opposition Chief Whip concluded.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Development requires more than oil revenues
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- In one of the most impassioned pleas ever made, an evangelical Bishop Rev. Mariann Edgar... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
