No meeting of minds on committees stalemate

Karl Samuda, who was the leader of government business when then PM Bruce Golding handed the chairmanship of parliamentary oversight committees to the Opposition, has suggested that the experiment did not sufficiently serve its purpose.

His comments come against the background of last week’s vigorous debate across the parliamentary divide over who should chair the oversight committees of Parliament and whether state ministers should, in the first place, be appointed to those committees and, second, be selected by the Government as chairmen.

During last week’s debate, Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives Floyd Green called for the suspension of the proceedings and proposed to have dialogue with his opposition counterpart Phillip Paulwell with the hope that they would be on “one accord” today.

However, Paulwell told The Gleaner that he had not yet received a call from Green when the newspaper contacted him late Monday afternoon. Calls to Green’s cell number went to voicemail.

In a Gleaner interview, the retired parliamentarian, Karl Samuda, said he had seen instances where the opposition chair acted less than impartially in the selection of times when meetings are convened.

“I would be hard-pressed in contemporary times to extend the level of involvement of the Opposition in the governance of the country to making them chairmen of the committees,” he said.

PURPOSE NOT SATISFIED

On reflection, Samuda said he did not believe the Opposition’s presence as chairmen of oversight committees has satisfied the purpose of holding the Government to account, as proposed by the former prime minister.

“In a situation like this, where this Parliament is one of the most hotly contested, I would be much more inclined to support the opinion that the Government should retain the chairmanship of those committees,” Samuda noted.

He argued that the country would be better served if those who are part of the administration would be able to bring their experience and first-hand knowledge, from decisions made at the government level, to the committees and give their opinions on the policies that are being pursued.

“But the oversight is there because the Opposition must be vigilant. Their vigilance don’t come from sitting as chair, it comes from being in the Parliament and to debate [issues] publicly in the Parliament,” he added.

During last week’s debate, Opposition Leader Mark Golding drew on Standing Order 68(3) to argue that sessional select committees should not include among their membership ministers or parliamentary secretaries.

Noting that this Standing Order supports good governance in Jamaica’s democracy, the opposition leader contended that the influence of the executive could undermine the efficacy and transparency of oversight functions of Parliament.

Government backbencher Marlene Malahoo Forte sought to dismiss the opposition leader’s concern, pointing out that when the motion was moved by Green, he requested that the Standing Orders be suspended. She argued that where leave is requested and obtained and the Standing Orders have been suspended, the mover of the motion can proceed.

However, the opposition leader said there was no invocation of the Standing Orders, adding that the move by the Government also constituted an abuse of the rules of Parliament which prohibit a course of action to be pursued.

“I am extremely alarmed and disappointed that the Government is proceeding down this undemocratic path, in violation of the Standing Orders. I urge them to reconsider this as we will not support this motion,” he said.

Under the Portia Simpson Miller administration, the Opposition was allowed to chair oversight committees. The Bruce Golding model of opposition members chairing oversight committees was also adopted by the Andrew Holness administration in 2016. However, he reversed the arrangement in his second term when the Government won a landslide victory at the polls in 2020.

The only two oversight committees now chaired by the Opposition, based on parliamentary convention, are the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com