The Parliamentary Management Committee (PMC) will meet today to review the make up of a parliamentary delegation selected to observe the Nebraska Legislature next month.
Following a complaint that AFC Members of Parliament (MPs) were excluded from the mission, the committee has placed the issue on its agenda for its next meeting. The AFC Chief Whip, Sheila Holder, wrote Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran, requesting an urgent meeting of the PMC to review the names that were submitted by the Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin.
In the letter, dated February 22, Holder noted that Corbin had submitted the names of four PNCR MPs to attend and observe the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature committee system at work, between March 11 and 17. The visit is part of the Fiscal and Financial Management Programme, which is intended to sensitise and expose MPs who are members of the Public Accounts Committee and the Economic Services Committee in order to enhance their work. Holder noted that the AFC has two MPs on the two committees and she said the party was not consulted on the selection and submission of the four names.
Holder also pointed out that even the PNCR’s acting Chief Whip, Deborah Backer, in a letter in early January, had noted that AFC MPs would welcome all opportunities to be exposed to relevant training that would enhance their knowledge and expertise, thereby resulting in enhanced representation of the citizenry.
The AFC won five seats in the National Assembly during the last general elections.
On Friday, the AFC accused both the ruling PPP/C and the main opposition PNCR-1G of deliberate efforts to stifle the party’s involvement in the affairs of the Parliament. “The AFC is firmly of the view that there is a collaborative PPP/C and PNCR-1G effort to deny it an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the business of parliament,” it said in a press statement.
The party said it had reason to complain in the past about the exclusion of its members from committees as alternates, the removal of AFC and GAP-ROAR representatives from the programme of the recently concluded parliamentary symposium involving MPs from the UK Parliament, and more recently, what it sees as the deliberate exclusion of any AFC member to comprise a delegation to conduct a study mission at the Nebraska Legislature in the US, in March.
According to the AFC, at the commencement of the Ninth Parliament, MPs were informed that political party representation on committees, delegations and the like would be accorded on a proportionate basis. Unfortunately, it added, this rule is being observed in disobedience. It said it was mind-boggling how a parliamentary delegation of the size and importance that is scheduled to visit Nebraska could include only the PPP/C and the PNCR-1G and not all of the political parties represented in Parliament. Regretfully, it said, the statements made and repeated about inclusiveness and cooperation are nothing but idle boasts.
