– Speaker Trotman

THE Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the security sector, whose establishment was approved by the National Assembly since 2010, is still to meet.Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, is tasked with convening a meeting of the Oversight Committee and in an invited comment he noted that this will be done before the House goes into recess in August.
“The truth is I did convene a meeting some months ago and there was a request to adjourn it. I am going to bring it back, but because of all that is happening, I will try to do it before we go into recess,” he told the Guyana Chronicle.
The Government’s Chief Whip, Ms. Gail Teixeira, when asked to comment on the issue, explained that as far as she is aware no meeting has been held.
“As far as I know that meeting has not been convened, the Committee has not met. It may have been postponed before it was convened. It may have been that a notice to convene the meeting was sent out and it was postponed before the meeting was convened, that could be what possibly happened, but as far as I am aware there has been no meeting,” she explained.
Teixeira added that the Government did not request any adjournment of such a meeting, given its importance and the fact that a first meeting is long overdue.
“We did not request an adjournment. If it was convened and a request for a postponement was made, it was not a request that was made by us,” she said.
The Chief Whip stated too that once the Committee’s meeting is convened the first task will be the selection of the Chair, who has to be a Government Member of Parliament.
“At the Committee of Selection, the names were put forward, the Government put its names and the Opposition put its names and the Committee was appointed. The Committee has to be convened to elect a Chair and the Chair has to be a Government person,” Teixeira said.
The contention of several Government Members of Parliament (MPs) is that the Opposition is avoiding a meeting because the Chair has to be a Government MP.
Last month, the ruling party rapped the main Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), for skirting around a meeting of the Committee and raising security-related issues as motions in the National Assembly rather than have them brought before the Committee.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), in a statement, said, “The Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector would provide the best mechanism for the resolution of security-related issues. Our Party is not unmindful of the Opposition’s frequent utterances on the importance of Parliamentary Committees to deal with issues that impact our society.
“The Opposition’s reluctance for the establishment of a Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector is mind boggling. The PPP believes that partisan self-interest is the bedrock of the APNU’s unwillingness to activate the oversight committee.”
Since the commencement of the 10th Parliament, the combined Opposition has tabled numerous questions on the security sector and moved a few motions demanding the appointment of Commissions of Inquiry (COIs) to investigate alleged breaches in the sector.
Additionally, former Attorney-General (AG) Doodnauth Singh in 2009 tabled the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2009 in the National Assembly.
The Bill was intended to amend the Constitution by inserting a new Article 119 D, providing for a Standing Committee called the ‘Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector’, which would have responsibility for the policies and administration of the country’s disciplined forces.
The move was in keeping with an agreement made by National Stakeholders during security consultations in March last year. The original recommendation was made by a Special Select Committee reviewing the report of the Disciplined Forces Commission. The issue had also been the subject of discussion at the level of the Parliamentary Management Committee.
There are currently four sectoral committees responsible for economic services, social services, natural resources and foreign relations.

(By Vanessa Narine )