The timing of government’s increase in thresholds for restricted tendering should be questioned given that the Cabinet should have resigned with the December 21st passage of a no-confidence motion against the government, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran has said.
Goolsarran told Stabroek News yesterday that while there is nothing wrong with the process undertaken by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan to raise the thresholds, “the timing of the increases in the light of the 21 December 2018 vote of no confidence” is in question since Jordan would have acted under subsidiary legislation granting to him that right as a minister.
Article 106 (6) of the Constitution provides that “the Cabinet including the President shall resign” if the government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of no confidence, while Article 106 (7) states that notwithstanding its defeat, the government shall remain in office and shall hold elections in three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine.
