SPEAKER Raphael Trotman was forced to abandon the debate, started by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member Carl Greenidge in the National Assembly Thursday night, seeking to drastically revamp the nation’s budgetary preparation process.

Mr. Trotman had to invoke the Parliamentary Standing Orders, which allowed him to adjourn the session in circumstances of ‘grave disorder.’
Deputy Speaker Deborah Backer had convened the sitting and Trotman assumed the Chair following the mid-afternoon break but had cause, on several occasions, to intervene in an attempt to restore order.
He appealed to Members of Parliament (MPs) on both sides of the House, emphasising the importance and ramifications of the debate, but to no avail.
“Good night…you will inform me of when you would like the next session,” were Trotman’s closing words to the assemblage as he adjourned the meeting.
At the time of the abrupt adjournment, Minister within the Ministry of Finance Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill had been defending his independence at the helm of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) as other MPs launched volleys of boisterous verbal attacks on each other.

INDIVIDUAL BUDGETS
Among the many proposals put forward by Greenidge, through the legislative amendments, was to have constitutional offices/bodies prepare individual budgets and have them submitted directly to Parliament for approval or disapproval.
Greenidge proposed that the Finance Ministry only be consulted on the process and format, as against decision making.
But Edghill was adamant that, as Chairman of the ERC, the manner in which resources were provided to the body did not undermine his autonomy.
He insisted that the only attempts to undermine the ERC were made by the members of the Opposition, one of the many charges that led to sporadic instances of unparliamentary decorum.
Greenidge in presenting the measure to the House, argued that the current manner in which the National Budget is prepared, allows the Finance Minister “to control the purse strings” of agencies such as the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), among other such constitutional bodies.
Greenidge maintained that inherent in the process would be the ability to undermine the agencies by the Executive, against the spirit of the Constitution when those Offices were created.
Former Labour Minister and current People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) MP Manzoor Nadir lamented what he called Greenidge’s effort to tinker with a tried and tested method involving the Budget preparation.
Nadir said, over the past 50 years, many countries have attempted to remove the authority of the Executive in preparing a National Budget but with disastrous consequences.

ALMOST UNIVERSAL
“It is almost universal that the presentation of Budget and Finance issues is the sole preserve of the Executive… the issue of management of money must be of concern to the Executive,” he said, accusing Greenidge of being “prone to making statements far from reality.”
Nadir also reacted to issues raised, about former High Court Judge Jainarine Singh and ex-Attorney General, Doodnauth Singh experiencing difficulties to get their benefits.
Nadir told the House that, as it relates to the judge, he had been in an acting position and, as such, benefits are not on par with that of a substantive holder nor automatic.
Regarding the former AG, Nadir said it was the ‘long drawn out process’ that was being challenged by Singh, as different to any deliberate attempt to deny him.
Nadir, nevertheless, reiterated that the propositions by Greenidge make a radical departure from a time honoured principle that the Executive is best placed to deal with budgetary matters.
There is only one budget process and that is the one coordinated by the Finance Minister, Nadir said.
Jaipaul Sharma, another APNU spokesman supporting Greenidge, also experienced a number of interruptions while on the floor, causing Speaker Trotman to intervene once more.
“I am the Speaker and I am telling you to move on, move on,” he chided, as he pushed to restore order.
Sharma accused the current AG, Mr. Anil Nandlall, of misunderstanding the Guyana Constitution, which sent MPs into bursts of uncontrollable laughter.
Notable among the incidents that resulted in rapid informal tit-for-tats in the House, as Edghill spoke, was APNU MP Vanessa Kissoon calling Housing and Water Minister Irfaan Ali a thief.
It was from that point the decorum in the chamber plunged over the proverbial cliff leading Speaker Trotman to invoke Standing Order 47 (9).
That states…“in the case of grave disorder, arising in the assembly, the Speaker may, if he or she thinks it necessary to do so, adjourn the Assembly without question put, or suspend the Sitting for a time to be named by him or her.”