Opposition to assume chairmanship of Parliamentary committee on foreign relations

Mar 13, 2025 News

Kaieteur News- Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Opposition Member of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir has confirmed that the chairmanship of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations will be handed over shortly to the opposition.

Opposition to assume chairmanship of Parliamentary committee on foreign relations

Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Opposition Member of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir.

In a telephone interview with this publication, she explained that there is an arrangement with the parliamentary sectoral committees, where specific committees are chaired for one year by the government and then chairmanship rotates to the opposition.

However, in order for the chair to be rotated “the government has to convene a meeting of the Foreign Relations Committee, and as you know, the government has failed to do so. So they undertook to convene a meeting soonest, not only for the purposes of the chair, but certainly to brief the sectoral committee on all that has been happening with Venezuela. But to date, I have seen no action in that regard,” she said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hugh Todd is the current Chair and the one who has to convene the meeting. However, it has been a week since the discussions were held during the meeting with the President and he is yet to do so she stressed.

Further probing revealed that she shares the same sentiments voiced by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton at his recent press conference in relation to the government committee members showing up at meeting for a quorum to be met. Walton-Desir highlighted that this has also been “happening with the Public Accounts Committee, and it happens with several committees where the government believes that they should not be subject to scrutiny. Because if you know what the mandate of the sectoral committees is, the constitutionally mandated committees that will enable parliament to scrutinise and review the work of particular sectors.”

“Therefore, when government members on these committees failed to show up, no quorum is met and to that degree, there is no accountability and transparency provided to citizens, as meetings cannot be convened without a quorum met,” the Shadow Foreign Minister said.

On Friday at his weekly press conference, Norton was asked if the committee was briefed on the Venezuela situation, and if that came up during his meeting with the President. He told the media that while he indeed raised the issue, he permitted the Shadow Minister to speak on the matter. “She spoke to it, and Minister Todd said, well, we’re handing over… this is his exact word… we’re handing over the chairmanship shortly. So they never respond to the real non-meeting of it, but they say they’re handing it over.”

Norton highlighted that handing over the committee does not remedy the situation as the government can very well do what they are currently doing with the Public Accounts Committee. They hand it over and then refuse to turn up; therefore, no meeting can be held as a quorum is not met.

(Opposition to assume chairmanship of Parliamentary committee on foreign relations)

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Chairmanship, Government, Parliamentary Committee, quorum, Venezuela

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