…says dissatisfied with performance at Parliamentary committees

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo says he is not satisfied with the performance of his MPs who are members of the various Parliamentary Sectoral Committees.

At the same time, the Opposition Leader suggested at a press conference on Thursday that the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) who sit on the committee may need preparatory schooling from the more experienced members of the party.
Jagdeo in response to a question posed by the media noted that the Opposition has worked on its agenda to hold the government accountable on critical matters.

He lamented, however, that the efforts of the party members on important committee is lacking. He suggested that some may not be “specialists “to deal with matters such as the oil and gas industry. Jagdeo said that preparation would help the party. “We spoke extensively on that because it’s a concern of mine”, noting that the party will step- up the level of preparation of its members to sit on the key parliamentary committees.

According to the PPP leader he met with Members of the Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday which includes Odinga Lumumba, Pauline Sukhai, Neil Kumar and Yvonne Pearson and registered his dissatisfaction with their questioning of Ministers and other government officials who appear before the very important Committee. “I told them that they have to prepare before, focus more and seek guidance from the other MPs… with good preparation they can do this,” he added. “Let me also say that it is not just the Natural Resources Committee but all the other Standing Committees we have to step up our representation.”

In a recent press statement Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman in responding to Jagdeo’s claims that government was not open enough on matters of the oil and gas sector disclosed that PPP MPs have complimented him for his openness. Trotman said the records of the National Assembly will show that he and Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Brooms, have appeared before the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources on several occasions, and most recently on May 18, where he delivered a full and frank presentation that addressed at length, developments in the oil and gas sector.

The Committee is chaired by Lumumba. Trotman said no suggestions were made at any appearances before this Committee that the ministry, or ministers, were withholding information in any way. Instead, he said the ministers have been repeatedly complimented for their open and forthright presentations.

It is not the first time Jagdeo has publicly chastised his MPs. Only recently he said they had dropped the ball on their representation of the party when the Cybercrime Bill was discussed at the level of the Parliamentary Select Committee.

“I think we dropped the ball on this matter… because it was only after the meeting that we had in preparation for Parliament… when we had a good look at the bill that we recognised that this provision had been inserted in our absence,” Jagdeo had said in response to a question on the sedition clause in the Cybercrime bill.