MPs working for their money
-PNC/R tells PPP
Stabroek News
October 22, 2002
The PNC/R yesterday said that its Members of Parliament (MPs) were earning their stipends by participating in the functioning of a key committee and by working among their constituents.
The party's statement came in response to a PPP press release on Saturday which charged that even though PNC/R MPs were not attending Parliament they were still collecting their taxpayer-funded stipends.
In its statement, the PNC/R described the present parliament as "a meaningless circus" and accused the ruling party of being afraid of a vibrant National Assembly, "which is truly the watchdog on behalf of all the people of this nation"
The party also accused the PPP of being dishonest by omitting to state that its parliamentarians still participate in the work of the Public Accounts Committee.
A release from Congress Place said the PPP misrepresented the facts in its statement calling on the PNC/R MPs to return to the National Assembly or repay the $10 million in salaries and allowances they and their leader had collected since they walked out of the National Assembly on March 15. The PPP/C said it would draw this to the attention of the Auditor General and the Integrity Commission.
The Congress Place statement said "the PNC/R Members of Parliament have continued their service to their constituents by intensifying our work in all the regions of Guyana. That is our duty and our responsibility and we do not need the PPP to remind us of that".
"In this era of people participation and involvement, the PPP seems to harbour the backward and mistaken notion that the work of an MP should be limited to participation in the debates in the National Assembly which their own failures have rendered sterile and useless."
The PNC/R statement asserted "the PNC/R will not lend itself to legitimising the PPP's obviously unenlightened intention to dupe the Guyanese people".
"Only a reformed National Assembly, as agreed to in the already assented to constitutional amendments, can create the necessary conditions for the full involvement of the People's Representatives."
The statement said the Guyanese people deserve no less and that the PNC/R would not be a participant in the PPP's designs to rob them of their constitutional rights.