President Donald Ramotar and leaders of the two Opposition parties in Parliament met at the Office of the President yesterday and those engagements have been described as devoid of roadblocks and non-contentious as they continued to speak on a range of issues just days hours before Friday’s sitting of Parliament
Up to last night, this newspaper was awaiting the release of an official joint statement from Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira, who said that she had been awaiting clearance from all the parties for the statement’s release.
Speaking to the Stabroek News, Leader of the Opposition David Granger said that he was pleased with how the meeting proceeded. “We have not had any roadblocks,” Granger said. “We agreed that we would maintain the pattern of meetings and that it would no longer be [in an ad hoc manner],” he said. Granger added that the meeting was as cordial as the previous two had been.
Not wanting to prejudice the official statement from the meeting, Granger remained deliberately vague, saying that issues of Friday’s parliamentary sitting which would also see the ceremonial opening came up, as well as those related to the budget.
At their previous meeting last week Monday, the parties established three committees on security, governance and economic matters.
Government had also undertaken to facilitate a request by the Alliance For Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to meet with and make presentations to the Tax Review Committee that President Donald Ramotar has established.
The parties had agreed on an agenda for further engagement on a number of issues, including reviewing the tax system, the national budget and closer scrutiny of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.
The series of meetings came in the aftermath of the hung parliament from the November 28 general elections.
Several key issues were selected for plenary discussions whilst others were considered within the remit of the Tax Review Committee.
At the previous meeting, the AFC proposed that there are reviews of major projects such as the Amaila Falls Hydro-project and others by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economic Services. According to the statement from last week’s meeting, the APNU preferred the establishment of a Task Force that would carry out a review. It noted that the President cautioned the meeting on the sensitivity of this issue and stated that this required further discussion at the plenary.
