Opposition Chief Whip seeks review of “dreadful” motion

Nov 21, 2016 News

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell

“This is dread for Members (of Parliament) on our side,” said Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira yesterday as she spoke about a Motion recently passed in the National Assembly that temporarily changes the timings for House sittings.
It was crafted and passed to facilitate Budget debates and deliberations. Budget debate and deliberations will now be held between 10:00hrs to 20:00hrs from December 5 to December, 21.
Teixeira said that this motion was taken to the House in the absence of any real discussions between the Whips.
She said that in October, government Chief Whip Amna Ally mentioned that the government was considering altering the timings. “Amna told me that this is something that they would like to do. She mentioned this to me in October. I said okay let’s talk about it.”
Teixeira said that it must be remembered that “MPS are part time. We have people who are lawyers, teachers and who are in the private sector…I did not say nay but I did not say yay because I assumed it would be something we are going to talk about.”
Teixeira said that to her surprise, during the last sitting, a motion to change the time was circulated.
“We were shocked to see it (the motion) circulated in the middle of the sitting but then I realized the Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland allowed a suspension motion,” said Teixeira.
“They noted, in very fine writing, that a suspension motion was granted by the Speaker. Because of all that was going on, it slipped by. We left the house after the Speaker told Anil that he had to leave; but, we had the radio listening to what was happening.
We were shocked to learn that when they finished the debate on the Granger Motion suddenly this motion was put to the floor and approved within two minutes.”
Teixeira said that such an extended period (from Dec 5 to Dec 21) for sittings from 10: 00hrs to 20;00hrs is hard to manage.
“This is dread for our members…It (the motion) has to be reviewed because the way the motion was drafted is to have the debates and the estimates last all day. We may be able to manage the hours for the debates but when it comes to the estimates we would like to go back to two to ten.
The National Budget is to be presented to the National Assembly on December, 5.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News