High Court asked to block approval of funds for constitutional agencies
Opposition Member of Parliament, Coretta McDonald
Opposition Member of Parliament, Coretta McDonald

OPPOSITION Members of Parliament, Ganesh Mahipaul and Coretta McDonald, along with several others, have moved to the High Court to challenge the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Bill of 2021, which was passed in the National Assembly on February 9.
In addition to Mahipaul and McDonald, who is the General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union, Dawn Gardner, First Vice-President of the Guyana Public Service Union; Michael Somersall, Chairman of the Public Service Commission; Clinton Conway, Member of the Police Service Commission; and Allan Munroe, Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission are listed as applicants in the case.

Opposition Member of Parliament, Ganesh Mahipaul

The respondents are Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall S.C.; the Minister of Finance and or the Senior Minister within the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh; the Judicial Service Commission; the Public Service Commission; the Teaching Service Commission; the Public Service Appellate Tribunal, the Public Procurement Commission, the Guyana Elections Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Ethnic Relations Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the Women & Gender Equality Commission, the Indigenous Peoples Commission, the Rights of the Child Commission, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Office of the Auditor General, the Supreme Court of Judicature; Parliament Office; Speaker of the National Assembly and the Clerk of the National Assembly.

The Fixed Date Application, which was filed by Attorney-at-law Roysdale Forde, S.C is seeking a declaration that the Supreme Court of Judicature is entitled to operate and function free of the exercise of any control by the Executive and of any other entity by virtue of Article 122 of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. The applicants are also seeking a declaration that the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Act of 2021 is unconstitutional, null, void and of no legal effect as it establishes a system or scheme for the treatment of Budget Submissions or Proposals of constitutional agencies listed in the Third Schedule of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, which is inconsistent with and contrary to the scheme and provisions laid down in the said Constitution for the treatment of Budget Submissions and/or Proposals of such constitutional agencies.

The applicants are also seeking another declaration that the constitutional agencies listed in the Third Schedule are to function independently, impartially and free of the exercise of any control by the Executive, and of any other entity.
They are also seeking to attain an order directed to the Minister of Finance and/or the Senior Minister in the Office of the President or such other minister assigned the responsibility for finance in the Government of Guyana to comply in the constitutional prescription and/or system for the funding, budgeting and approval of Budget Submissions and/or Proposals set out in the Constitution of Guyana for the constitutional agencies listed in the Third Schedule for the fiscal year 2021.
Additionally, they are also seeking another order against the Minister of Finance and other senior ministers from tabling and/or presenting to the National Assembly any Appropriation Bill containing and/or including any expenditure or purported appropriations in respect of any of the constitutional agencies listed in the Third Schedule.

According to the applicants, the process set out by the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act of 2021 has restricted the constitutional agencies’ ability to use funds allocated by the National Assembly in such manner as it sees fit and has restricted the use of the funds to items in the budget similar to budgets of budget agencies. “That evidence of this restriction and control is set out in a Letter dated the 28th day of January 2021, from S. Pukrishnalall Pasha, Finance Secretary to Mr. Jaigobin Jaisingh, Secretary of the Public/Police Service Commission with regards to the Police Service Commission’s ability to retain Counsel to represent its interest in a current High Court case Fazil Karimbaksh v. Police Service Commission,” the applicants said in their court documents.

They further contended that no Budget Submissions and/or Proposals of the constitutional agencies listed in the Third Schedule of the Constitution were laid over with the Speaker and/ or Clerk of the National Assembly. “The Applicant fear that unless the Application is heard and determined granted. that financial autonomy is of the constitutional agencies as contemplated and provided for in the Constitution will be eroded as the Budget Submissions and or Proposals of Constitutional agencies would be subject to the consideration and approval of the Executive in breach of the Constitution, the doctrine of the Separation of Powers and with devastating consequences for the Rule of Law in Guyana,” the applicants said.
The application is expected to be heard soon at the High Court.

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