Speaker adjourns sitting after unruly behaviour

Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman abruptly ended yesterday’s sitting  following unruly behaviour by parliamentarians on both sides of the House during a contentious debate on an amendment to the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act in the name of APNU member Carl Greenidge.

At the time of the adjournment – around 8.50 pm –  Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill was speaking for the Government on the Bill. He had been making the point that his independence as the Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission was never compromised and said that there were attempts by some members of the Opposition to compromise his independence. This statement prompted a vigorous reaction from members of the Opposition who took offence at the statement and APNU member Deborah Backer called for there to be a withdrawal of the statement which sought to impugn the Opposition. Speaker Trotman agreed with this call and asked Edghill to either call the names of the persons to whom he referred or withdraw the statement altogether.

He said that if he wanted to make such serious allegations he should be prepared to bring a motion to the House and have the matter properly debated.

APNU MP Vanessa Kissoon then heckled an accusation against Commerce Minister Irfaan Ali and the Government side erupted to the chagrin of the Speaker. This caused counter heckling and this is when the Speaker sounded what had to be a ten-second warning that he would adjourn the House and go home if the situation continued unabated.

Then ten seconds later as the noise did not subside, he said he was ending the session. “Goodnight,’ he bade the House as he quickly left his chair.

Prior to the entire brouhaha, Greenidge in presenting the Bill for its second reading impressed upon the House the need to have the Minister held accountable in the same way as officers in the Ministry for financial impropriety.

Speaking on the Bill, PPP/C MP Manzoor Nadir rejected the proposed amendment and said that the Government is best placed to handle the financial affairs of the state.

The Bill is entitled ‘Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2013’ – Bill No. 5/2013 and notice of it was given on January 15, 2013. The Bill proposes to extend Section 85 of the principal act to specify Ministers. The extant legislation says in Section 85, “An official who – (a) falsifies any account, statement, receipt or other record issued or kept for the purposes of this Act, the Regulations, the Finance Circulars or any other instrument made under this Act; (b) conspires or colludes with any other person to defraud the State or make opportunity for any person to defraud the State; or (c) knowingly permits any other person to contravene any provision of this Act, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to a fine of two million dollars and to imprisonment for three years.”

The amendment sought for this section will include the word ‘Minister’ as it applies to an official.

Greenidge and other members of the Opposition recently accused Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh of breaching the FMAA by making expenditure without the requisite appropriations. Greenidge had told this newspaper that the Bill is meant to stop the abuse of the Contingencies Fund.

He said that this is something that repeated Auditor General reports since 2006 have been calling for to be addressed and that there has been abuse of the Contingencies Fund with no sanction coming from the Parliament.

He said that the Minister must not be above the law and noted that the penalty provision was a part of the Act originally but the Government at the time saw it fit to delete it. Remaining speakers on the Bill included Minister of Finance Singh and Greenidge.

It is unclear when the next sitting of the National Assembly will be held.