THE People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is under fire for reportedly failing to attend meetings of the Parliamentary Management Committee and also for failing to meaningfully participate in the work of other standing committees. For the fourth time on Wednesday, a meeting of the PMC had to be put off due to lack of a quorum as a result of the PPP’s absence. The Guyana Chronicle was told that the committee, unlike the other Parliamentary committees,has parity in representation from both the government and opposition. The committee is chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly. In an invited comment

on the issue, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo who is also Leader of the House, said it is unfortunate that the PPP who only recently complained about the lack of sittings of the National

Assembly, has not been attending meetings. “The work of Parliament is not only in the National Assembly, lots of work has to be done at the level of committees and this is being affected.” Nagamootoo said the Parliamentary Management Committee constitutes a very important function of the parliamentary system and should not be taken lightly. He said too that the opposition has not been attending some of the other committees.
Only recently Nagamootoo had expressed “shock” over claims by the PPP regarding the adjournment of the National Assembly to May 4th. Nagamootoo had said then that the Opposition knew fully well that no sittings would be advised before Local Government Elections and during the Easter and Phagwah holidays. Additionally, he said there is an ongoing capacity-building programme among the parliamentarians of Guyana, Canada and the United Kingdom for which several seminars have been scheduled overseas during the month of April. The Speaker of the National Assembly, the Clerk and Deputy Clerk, Clerks of Committees and other key parliamentary officers are due to travel to the United Kingdom for such events.
According to the PM, the adjournment to May 4, is therefore not unreasonable in the prevailing circumstances. “It is most disingenuous therefore for the PPP opposition to seek to lecture the government on lapse in sessions, especially when it is taken into consideration that when it strangled Parliament for nine continuous months between July 2014 and April 2015 by proroguing Parliament, then dissolving the House when the PPP was faced with a no-confidence motion.”
The Prime Minister proffered that the PPP should be most concerned about its own cavalier attitude towards Parliament, which it has so far shown a significant amount of disrespect for, first by boycotting then by refusing to nominate a Deputy Speaker, then by staging four walkouts within five months. Prime Minister Nagamootoo said that he has explained the six-week adjournment to the opposition Chief Whip Ms. Gail Teixeira after the March 10 sitting, as he felt that the opposition would have had notice of the capacity-building events through the Parliamentary Management Committee and the Guyana Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, of which it is an active member. Teixeira had responded, saying that she viewed the PM’s statement with “some amusement.” Teixeira noted that the practice in this the 11th Parliament of some discussions between the government and the opposition with regard to the date for a parliamentary sitting has been largely dispensed with.