The flurry of activity that followed the signing of the May 6 communique has slowed to a crawl as the implementation of the measures left over from the Jagdeo/Hoyte dialogue process is being tackled.
The activity to put the parliamentary reforms in place has also slowed as the parties grapple with the procedures for discharging their functions.
Despite the eagerness to have local government elections, the joint committee which is looking at the reforms to be introduced is yet to hold a meeting almost two weeks after the communique was signed. The committee has three months within which to complete its work, which includes recommending an electoral system for the elections that would allow individuals to participate; proposing a system of resource allocation to the local government bodies; and settling the terms of reference for an independent local government commission.
Another issue yet to be tackled is the projects for the depressed communities for which $60 million has been allocated. The joint committee on depressed communities was given a month within which to provide the President and the Leader of the Opposition with a list of communities from which to select those where the emergency projects would be undertaken.
In terms of the parliamentary reforms, the committee on constitutional reform is still to meet to elect a chair and to start working, with a priority being to identify the experts from outside the parliament who would be co- opted. The committee on constitutional reform is required to keep under continuous review the working of the constitution and to make periodic reports thereon to the National Assembly, with proposals for reform as necessary.
The committee of appointments the work of which is essential to the establishment of the service commissions has so far had one meeting. The function of this committee is to consult with the interest groups to be represented on the commissions on the persons they would want to have nominated.
The motion establishing the committees has set out the procedure for the consultations and the organisations to be consulted. Stabroek News understands that the committee is ready to move ahead with the consultations for the nominee to represent the practising attorneys on the Judicial Service Commission.
What will be problematic for the committee will be the organisations to be consulted to represent the public servants on the Public Service Commission. When the motion setting up the committee was discussed in the National Assembly, the parties sidestepped the issue by dropping the organisations identified to be included in the process. Those organisations were the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the Public Service Senior Staff Association. Omitted was the Federated Union of Government Employees, which traditionally was one of the organisations consulted. The omission brought a volley of criticism from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the GPSU promp-ting the withdrawal of the clause from the motion.
The issue, Stabroek News understands, was raised when the committee was considering the process for the Public Service Commission. The contention of the TUC and GPSU is that the members of the Public Service Senior Staff Association, who are Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries and Heads of the Departments, are not appointed by the PSC but are employed on contracts signed between themselves and the Office of the President. They see the move to include the association representing the senior public servants as designed to give the government nominees a majority on the commission.
Another issue that this committee would have to address is the process by which the various organisations are consulted. In the establishment of the Ethnics Relations Commission, it took more than a year for the organisations identified to be represented on it to be notified about selecting their nominees. The delay was harshly criticised by President Jagdeo and the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs - the minister who had responsibility for supervising the process.
With the committees in place, the administrative and research infrastructure will have to be put in place to service the committees. No allocations were made in the Budget for this expenditure and so the resources would have to be drawn from the contingency fund.
The basis for the administrative and research support that has to be provided is a document produced as a result of a meeting between Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran SC and the PNCR Parliamentary Chief Whip, Lance Carberry in April.
Stabroek News has been unable to access this document.
The communique says, “President Jagdeo reaffirmed his Government’s commitment to immediately provide the necessary financial, human and other resources, within the capacity of the National Treasury, for the effective functioning of the National Assembly.”