proceedings against ministers
AFC MP Khemraj Ramjattan has received permission from Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran to move a motion to have ministers Irfaan Ali and Dr Ashni Singh disciplined over a controversial $4B supplementary allocation to the Housing Ministry earlier this year.
Ramjattan told Stabroek News that he is currently drafting the motion, after receiving the go ahead from the Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs. He is asking that the two ministers appear before the Committee of Privileges, which deals with disciplinary matters as it relates to Members of Parliament. Ramjattan said that after he submits the motion, he expects that it will be debated in the House shortly.
In April, Ramjattan wrote to Ramkarran indicating his intention to move a motion in accordance with Standing Order 32. Explaining his move, Ramjattan said that on January 11, 2010, when Singh was seeking approval for $4B spending for infrastructural development and building, both Singh and Ali deceived the House. “When the Minister of Water and Housing [Irfaan Ali] answered Sheila Holder’s question with his utterance – “We are ready” – both these Ministers were knowingly misleading the House,” Ramjattan said. He also opined that this was “contemptuous conduct.”
In the letter to Ramkarran, Ramjattan said that in data provided as part of this year’s budget, an additional amount of $4B was reflected in the Housing Ministry’s Capital Expenditure for infrastructure development and building during 2009. According to him, “unassailable information” which has since been publicised revealed that the money was released to GuySuCo in December 2009. He said that when the matter came up again on February 25, during the budget debate on the 2010 Estimates, Ali refused to answer the direct questions posed to him. “Contempt is committed in the actual view of either House, as for example by the prevarication of a witness, by his false evidence, or refusal to answer…” Ramjattan said, quoting from the 21st edition of Erskine May. He said that Ali was like a witness answering questions and was obliged to answer and speak the truth.
Ramjattan asked that the Speaker rule that a prima facie case be made out against the two ministers and grant permission for them “to be brought before the Committee of Privileges and found in contempt of Parliament and penalised thereafter.”
PNCR-1G MP Deborah Backer is currently appearing before the Privileges Committee in connection with statements she made during a debate last year. On that occasion, Prime Minister Sam Hinds had written to Ramkarran seeking to have Backer appear before the Privileges Committee. Ramkarran then ruled that a prima facie case had been made against the PNCR-1G MP.
