Opposition changes give Commission more powers than Constitution allows

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar withheld assent to the Local Government Amendment Bill of 2012 because the joint Opposition made changes which conferred on the Local Government Commission powers, duties and responsibilities in excess of those granted by the Constitution.
Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall disclosed this yesterday during a media conference at Freedom House.
Article 78 A of the Constitution provides that Parliament shall establish a Local Government Commission, the composition and rules of which empower the Commission to deal as it deems fit with all matters relating to the regulation and staffing of local government organs and with dispute resolutions within and between local government organs
The President assented to three Local Government Bills on October 28th, 2013; but on that day too, the President, exercising powers conferred on him by Article 170 (3) of the Constitution, withheld his assent of the local government amendment bill of 2012.
On November 14, 2013, the president returned the Bill to the Speaker of the National Assembly with a message stating the unconstitutionality as one of the reasons for withholding assent.
Nandlall said that while this Bill was in the Special Select Committee of the National Assembly, many changes were made to it by the Joint Opposition to which Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) members of parliament objected.
These objections, he said, were all rejected un-meritoriously by the majority vote which the opposition enjoyed in the Committee.
He said that many clauses which were contained in the Bill original tabled by the Hon Minister of Local and Regional Development were deleted by the Joint Opposition committee without any insertions made to fill the void created by those deletions.
The changes which were made to the Bill rendered it constitutionally and institutionally defective and deficient.
These changes, he said, were not only in collision with the Constitution but are ultra vires of the Constitution, making them null void and void;
He said that, in consequence, there are now several structural and institutional deficiencies in the functional architecture of the local government structure.

(By Clifford Stanley)