Sectoral committees signal a more activist parliament
By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
May 16, 2003
When the National Assembly approved the motion yesterday establishing the parliamentary sectoral committees on natural resources, social services, economic services and foreign affairs it set in train the most progressive of the reforms resulting from the amendments to the constitution, observers say.
The Constitutional Reform Commission recommended their establishment, and the implementation of this recommendation was one of the most difficult on which to reach consensus. This difficulty was one of the reasons the negotiations between the governing and opposition parties broke down during the Jagdeo/Hoyte dialogue process.
The motion, unanimously approved yesterday, not only set out their terms of reference but also set out the gazetted ministerial responsibilities the various committees will oversee. Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy moved the motion and PNCR front-bencher, Deryck Bernard seconded it. Both acknowledged that the measure introduced a more activist role for the parliament and provided for greater participation by all the parliamentary parties in the work of the National Assembly.
Unlike the other recently established standing committees, the members of these committees have not yet been appointed but Stabroek News understands that they are likely to be named soon. Each committee will have seven members with four of them representing the government and three representing the parliamentary opposition. Government representatives will chair two of the committees with the deputy chairperson being provided by the opposition. In the other two committees the positions of the government and opposition will be reversed.
The motion provides for the committees in the discharge of their scrutinising role, “to examine all policies and administration, for each sector, to determine whether execution of government policy is in consonance with the principles of good governance and in the best interest of the people of Guyana”.
It also authorises the committees to review existing legislation on government policy and administration for any sector; make recommendations to the National Assembly on legislation or any other action to be taken or matters falling within their purview; and to summon persons to give evidence, scrutinise government documents, papers and records.
The terms of reference also provide for the committees to utilise, as they see fit, the services of experts and other sources of advice in the conduct of their work and to invite comments from ministers assigned responsibilities for the various sectors on their recommendations and reports. It also provides the committees with the authority to visit any government activity or project in Guyana.
In determining the composition of the committees, the parties had started off from opposing positions with the government insisting that ministers should chair the committees and the opposition insisting not only that the ministers should not chair them but that they should be excluded from their membership.
The government also wanted, in return for agreeing to exclude the ministers, opposition support for an amendment to increase the number of non-elected ministers to ten from the four that the constitution now provides for. In the end the parties decided to reduce the size of the committees from eleven to seven. In a compromise struck during the negotiations for the Jagdeo/Corbin engagement, the government acceded to the opposition’s contention that the principle of shared cabinet responsibility did not allow for ministers to be members of the committee. It was agreed too that both sides would appoint an alternate for each of the four committees.
