TODAY’s sitting of the National Assembly is dedicated to government business and the Order Paper is quite extensive, Secretary to the Cabinet, Dr Roger Luncheon informed yesterday at his usual post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, Georgetown.At today’s sitting, the government will be proposing the resubmission of the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Bill, along with the Firearm Amendment Bill, and the Evidence Amendment Bill.

“The December 12 sitting of the National Assembly has all the material for the show that the sittings have now become. A new vogue is becoming entrenched and that has to do with the resubmission for parliamentary consideration of bills that had been previously rejected. The view is better luck this time, especially since the mover, the goat has not bitten him,” Luncheon remarked.

According to Dr Luncheon, the first readings of new bills would see two – the Wildlife Legislation and the Postponement of Elections of Councillors in the local government system – an annual exercise while the local government elections are being awaited.

The second readings of bills including the Procurement Amendment Bill and the Financial Appropriation Bill are also on the Order Paper, Luncheon advised.

“The outcomes of Parliamentary Select Committee…those are also on the Order Paper and specifically dealing with the Cricket Bill, Deeds Registry and reports of the appointed committee that is fast-tracking the reconstitution of the service commissions, the Public, Police and the Judicial Service Commissions, as well as the Rights Commission, specifically the Rights of the Child and Women and Gender Equality.
“The anticipations from Cabinet’s perspective would focus on the resubmitted bills, hopefully, to avoid the experience of the Amaila Hydropower Bills that were resubmitted but had the same fate as when they were originally submitted,” stated Luncheon.

CORE FUNCTIONS
Increasingly, Guyanese have become convinced that the National Assembly has lost sight of its core functions to represent them as it goes about acting out its “bouts of incomprehension and partisanship,” observed Luncheon.
Written By Telesha Ramnarine