THE Government is interested in making Parliament more reflective of the views of all parties and is anxious to implement all the points agreed to at meetings between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), Mr. Desmond Hoyte.

However, failure to implement some of these agreements is no fault of the Government, because Opposition Leader Hoyte has not dealt with the matter with the speed it deserves, President Jagdeo said Friday.

The Government Information Agency (GINA) said His Excellency alluded to some concerns expressed by the Opposition about the composition of Parliamentary Committees, especially the chairmanship of them.

Some of the issues that surfaced include whether or not the committees should be part-time or full-time and remuneration of members, GINA disclosed.

GINA said President Jagdeo received one name from Mr. Hoyte before he left on recent trips abroad and the Head of State had already spoken to people to make the necessary adjustments.

The agency said Mr. Jagdeo had previously indicated to Mr. Hoyte that the Parliamentary Committees would be dealt with on his return.

GINA said the Government has already made important concessions to the Opposition, to have such committees in the first place, because there was none in the past.

The agency said, for the first time, the Opposition will have the opportunity of reviewing Government policies in Parliament.

President Jagdeo, who spoke about that and other matters at a news conference Friday, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Reepu Daman Persaud met with Mr. Lance Carberry of PNC/R on a number of occasions and they reached accord on several issues but the compostition of the Committees was a stumbling block, particularly the chairmanship of the Parliamentary Management Committee.

Mr. Jagdeo cited the United States (U.S.) Congress, where Republicans chaired all the committees while, in the Senate, the Democrats controlled the chair in all, after Republican defections.

He said the Opposition here is now seeking to not only have the chairmanship of some of the Committees but trying to get majority representation on them.

President Jagdeo quoted the Parliamentary Standing Orders (72:01), which shows that every constituted Committee should reflect, as far as possible, the balance of the parties in the National Assembly.

He was adamant that he would not concede Opposition control of the Committees, as major concessions have already been granted on the issue, GINA said.

Mr. Jagdeo said the Government will continue to chair these committees although it is prepared to make further concessions, in agreeing not to have Government Ministers chair any.

Still, he added, the Government could not agree to excluding Ministers from sitting on the committees because, after the parliamentary amendments, the Govenment was already severely restricted in the number of technocrat ministers it could appoint to Parliament.

President Jagdeo declared that, to further reduce these numbers would mean Government may not have enough members to sit on these committees.

He argued that, in all countries, the same scenario is observed and it should be no different in Guyana.