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No cracks, just confusion!

Aug 03, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Guyanese must not read too much into the recent rejection by the National Assembly of a motion piloted by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Dr. George Norton, asking for approval of duty free concessions for officers of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
The motion failed after a number of members on the government side either abstained or were not present during the voting, leading to speculation that there are deep divisions developing within the Coalition government.
The failed vote was not the result of any cracks within the Coalition. It was an exercise in the usual confusion with the Coalition.
The Financial Intelligence Unit, which is concerned with anti-money laundering and the countering of terrorist financing. The National Assembly had in January of this year, approved of the appointments of an accountant and an attorney for the agency. The motion brought before the House was for the granting of duty-free concessions.
It is trite law that while the Legislature may make appointments, the issue of benefits or terms of service is an Executive function. There are legal authorities, which can be quoted on this point.
The National Assembly has no role in deciding these benefits. Therefore, there were concerns that the motion itself was defective and this, no doubt, explains why some members on the government benches were reserved in supporting it.
The Committee of Appointments of the National Assembly is responsible making recommendations for appointments to designated offices, which the Constitution and the laws require must be made by the National Assembly.
There are constitutional commissions and other bodies whose senior officers have to be appointed by the Appointments Committee of the National Assembly, and in many cases after consultations with other bodies.
The Committee is required to identify the appropriated bodies for consultation, undertake the necessary consultation and, where necessary, receive the nominations from appropriated bodies. The Committee then makes its recommendations to the National Assembly.
The confusion, which rained down recently in the National Assembly saw two AFC Ministers abstain in the vote and other Ministers not being present during the vote. However, this is not evidence of divisions within the government. There were differences over the legality of the motion.
The AFC Ministers have explained that they were concerned about the legality of the motion – that whether it was the responsibility of the Committee to do this and whether this was the correct route for the granting of the concessions, which were being sought.
What is not being explained is why was there no intervention to stop the introduction of the motion before it was defeated. Why were the concerns of the AFC and other persons on the government side not forcibly communicated to their colleague, the Chairman, so as to avoid the embarrassing situation of the government motion being defeated.
In March of this year, the government was forced to abort discussion of a motion on the appointment of the Anti-money Laundering and Countering of the Financing of Terrorism Authority. However, it is still not exactly clear as to why this was done.
This is the sort of confusion which is the government’s actions are attracting in the in the National Assembly. In the case of the duty free recommendations for the senior officials of the FIU, it is obvious, now that there should have been better communication within the Coalition.
The Chairman of the Appointments Committee should never have had to face the embarrassing situation of having members from the government side abstain from his motion. If there were issues with the legality of the recommendations, this should have been sorted out before the sitting.

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