JSC chairman: Fix committee system

Deosaran was asked to respond to recent comments and criticisms of the committee system by Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Dr Keith Rowley and Ken Valley.

Deosaran said he agreed with the Prime Minister that there was an "anomaly" in the JSC system in Trinidad and Tobago. Manning described the JSC in Trinidad and Tobago, which comprised ministers investigating ministers, as a case of "himself to himself."

"You cannot have ministers judging other ministers through these committees. But the committee system as far as Westminster goes, is that ministers should not be members of these committees. It is just that we have set up a Cabinet system in a way that is contrary to the Westminster expectations in that almost everybody (in the Parliament on the government side) is in the Cabinet. So the Prime Minister is right that the Westminster system is not suitable to what happens in this country," Deosaran stated.

Saying that the PM’s statements were worthy of serious consideration, Deosaran said he believed that the time had come for Government to move expeditiously to establish a bipartisan team to review the functions and the constitutional mandate of these committees. This was necessary, he said, because the powers of these committees were enormous, the responsibilities very serious, and the expectations of the public, as far as the JSCs were concerned, were great.

He said the review was also necessary to avoid duplication because sometimes two JSCs were enquiring into the same government agency.

Deosaran warned against "throwing out the baby with the bathwater."

Referring to the PM’s statements, he said: "You cannot say you want the government to be accountable and when the mechanism for accountability on behalf of the Parliament is there, you have scepticism."

Commenting on Rowley’s criticisms of the JSC, the Independent Senator said that as long as the constitution required members of Parliament to undertake a function, that came above their party responsibilities. "And I am saying that in that context that any member who is delinquent in not attending committee meetings is violating the requirements of both the Standing Orders and the Constitution." He added, "You cannot disrespect the constitution like this because it would appear that you too as a Government and Members of Parliament are becoming lawless. So we have to bring a halt to these utterances and do something positive and the Government should now take the initiative."

Deosaran stated that the other thing Government needed to do was to make membership on these committees more attractive since people got no payment for attending meetings.

Asked if he agreed that the committee could not function properly under the current arrangement, Deosaran said the committees were trying to turn night into day, but there were gaps and flaws. These were not the fault of the committee or the principle of the committee system, but lay in how the Government arranged its business, he said.

He said he hoped that there would be a review of the system to make the committees stronger and more focused by September.

Asked if there was any validity in Opposition criticisms that committee members, who in their private and professional capacities provided professional services to government agencies for a fee, could not investigate the Government, Deosaran said, "If you want greater purity, you have to make Mps fulltime. You cannot have people who have their occupations and are operating as part-time Parliamentarians, and expect them not to practise their professions."

He added that the UNC, which established these committees, did not appear to put much thought into the actual operation. "So we are now caught in mid-stream by having an infrastructure to operate these committees, rather deficient, with a very holy and very noble principle of transparency and accountability." He said this underscored his position that "we needed to clean up the act."