MINISTERS BLANK JSC MEETINGS

The attendance of Government ministers and senior Government MPs to meetings of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) of Parliament was very poor, ranging from 21 percent to 32 percent. This has been noted in the first report of the JSC of Parliament appointed to inquire into and report to Parliament on municipal corporations and service commissions (with the exception of the Judicial and Legal Service Commissions). Out of a total of 19 meetings, Social Development Minister Anthony Roberts attended just four (21 percent), while Legal Affairs Minister Christine Kangaloo went to only five meetings (27 percent).

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hedwidge Bereaux was present at six of the 19 meetings while his colleague from the Senate, Rawle Titus (vice-president), showed up at seven meetings. Former works minister Franklin Khan also attended seven meetings. The only Government members who had  decent attendance records were Minister in the Ministry of Culture, Eudine Job-Davis, who turned up at 12 meetings (62 percent) and Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, who went to ten meetings (53 percent).

Apart from the committee chairman, Prof Ramesh Deosaran, who attended all meetings, UNC members did extremely well. Chandresh Sharma was a regular, attending 17 meetings (89 percent), followed closely by Robin Montano who was there for 16 meetings (84 percent)  and Nizam Baksh who showed up at 15 meetings (79 percent). Former members were Pundit Maniedo Persad who resigned to become High Commissioner to India, and Arnim Smith who died in 2003.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning is on record as saying that it is totally against the principle of Westminster style democracy and accountability for frontline ministers to be members of parliamentary committees, a scenario which he describes as “himself to himself.” Deosaran said that while he agreed with the Prime Minister that there was an “anomaly” in the JSC system, he believed that Government should fix the committee system, instead of complain about it. Deosaran stated that any member who was delinquent in not attending committee meetings was violating the requirements of both the Standing Orders and the Constitution.