13 Parliamentary Committees constituted after 8-month hiatus

Jun 06, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Following a 100-day hiatus since the last sitting of the National Assembly, the Committee of Selection finally met to constitute 13 parliamentary committees that had long remained vacant.

The development marks a critical step toward resuming legislative oversight, though opposition members remain skeptical about whether the government will allow the bodies to function effectively.

The 13 bodies fully constituted include the Parliamentary Management Committee, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform, the Committee on Appointments, the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector, the Standing Orders Committee, the Committee of Privileges, the Statutory Instruments Committee, the Assembly’s Committee, and the four Sectoral Committees covering Economic Services, Foreign Relations, Natural Resources, and Social Services.

While all parties, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and the government, successfully placed members on the various committees, a point of contention arose regarding Amanza Walton-Desir, leader of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM).

Both WIN and APNU agreed and attempted to nominate Walton-Desir to some of the committees, but the Chairperson of the Committee of Selection, Manzoor Nadir refused the nomination. The Chair explained that based on the official document used to calculate eligibility, Walton-Desir did not receive the necessary number of votes to qualify for nomination to any of the bodies.

For the Public Accounts Committee, which focuses on examining audited public accounts and ensuring financial accountability, the constitutional makeup consists of five government members and four opposition members. This minority opposition allocation was calculated using the established parliamentary formula reflecting each party’s strength in the National Assembly.

Representing the opposition on the PAC will be Juretha Fernandes and Ganesh Mahipaul, and WIN members Vishnu Panday and Nandrani Singh. Since the PAC is traditionally chaired by the lead opposition in Parliament, a member from the WIN party is slated to take the chair. Meanwhile, the Foreign Relations Committee, one of the sectoral committees tasked with scrutinising government foreign policy and performance, will see Odessa Primus and Dr. Andre Lewis taking up seats, after WIN originally nominated Walton-Desir alongside Dr. Lewis before running into the voting eligibility barrier.

Despite this, opposition figures are raising alarms based on past parliamentary standoffs. Opposition Chief Whip Tabitha Sarabo-Halley expressed mixed feelings about the breakthrough, detailing the deep structural roadblocks that often follow the official setup of these bodies.

In an interview with Kaieteur News, Sarabo-Halley said that creating the committees on paper means very little if the administration actively prevents them from gathering. She continued, “So outside of that, though, while this is the first step in the process, the reality is that there have been times in the past, and most of the times in the past, the committees are constituted, but the actual working of the committees have oftentimes been stalled due to not being quarried or last-minute changes, persons saying that you’re out of the country or have other pressing matters to deal with that would then not allow the committees to actually meet. And in some other cases, there were instances where because of how certain things happen in the committees, the government just decided to not call committee meetings.”

Looking ahead to the immediate timeline, Sarabo-Halley noted that the Speaker said that next week, meetings will be called for those committees to meet for the first time and to elect their chairs and vice-chairs. She concluded, “So we wait to see when that happens and to see whether or not the government is actually finding it recognizing the importance of having these committees meet and not just constituting.”

APNU Member of Parliament (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul when asked who specifically would represent the political opposition on the financial oversight body, Mahipaul stated, “On the PAC, the opposition will be Juretha Fernandes, myself, Ganesh Mahipal from APNU. And from the WIN side, they have Vishnu Panday and Nandrani Singh. Those are the four names from the opposition.”

Mahipaul stressed that the power to convene the initial meeting lies entirely with the speaker, which makes the upcoming weeks highly unpredictable. He stated, “Well, the PAC can only meet once the speaker calls the first meeting. Again, the powers lie in the hands of the speaker. He has to call the first meeting of the Public Accounts Committee for us to elect a chairman. And after that, then the chairperson will call meetings. If the committee does not agree on a statutory date, the chairperson will have the powers to call meetings subsequently. But the first meeting has to be called by the Speaker of the National Assembly.”

Recalling past parliamentary deadlocks, Mahipaul voiced severe doubts about whether the speaker would act in good faith. He concluded, “Given what we have seen in the past, we remember in the last Parliament how many months we had to wait for the PAC to be convened because the speaker had to call that meeting and he took months to do so. Given that he took several months to call for the leader of the opposition to be elected, given that we have had so long to wait for the committee of selection to come into place to have these things…it’s a fair conclusion that probably he will take a couple more months because it seems as though it doesn’t bother him that he’s really holding back the work of these committees, which are really the guardrails that protect our democracy.”

A contingent from the diplomatic corps including representatives from the European Union, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and France was present in the gallery. Notably, Canadian High Commissioner Sébastien Seguin, U.S. Ambassador Nicole Theriot, British High Commissioner Joseph Fisher, and EU Ambassador Luca Pieratoni, were instrumental in the prompting the scheduling of this specific sitting, which was convened in the wake of a story published by this newspaper.

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• APNU, National Assembly, Parliament, parliamentary committees, Public Accounts Committee

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