The National Assembly is continuing to examine the mechanism through which the Parliament Office would begin to employ its own staff.
A motion is currently before the Assembly seeking an extension for the deadline of the work of the Special Select Committee that was set up to look at the arrangements, intended to actualise one of the recommendations of the Guyana Fiduciary Oversight Project, which aimed at various reforms. The Guyana Fiduciary Oversight Project Final Framework and Guidelines Report had recommended that the Parliament employ its own staff and that the Speaker should appoint the Clerk after consultations with all parties. A similar recommendation for the Parliament to have control of its staffing had also been made in the Needs Assessment of the National Assembly conducted by Sir Michael Davies.
The special select committee was also charged by the Assembly with examining the current constitutional arrangement for the appointment of the Clerk and advise whether there is need for a change and what it should be. The committee was appointed by a resolution of the Assembly, dated January 11, 2007, and was initially required to present a final report within three months. It was subsequently granted an extension to August, 2008.
It now seeks an extension to July 31, having been unable to complete its work.
According to GAP-ROAR MP Everall Franklin, who had moved the original motion that led to the committee being charged with the review, the delay is the result of the hesitance on the part of the government to give the Clerk autonomy to hire his own staff.
“What we are deliberating is how to implement the agreement, that is where we are getting a bit of hesitance,” he said, noting, however, that the government had supported the resolution to enable the change. “Implementation is always an issue but I think they will come around,” he added.
Franklin pointed out that with the Auditor General’s Office as well as Customs already in possession of such autonomy through control of their own budgets, it would follow that the supreme law making body of the land would too.
Sir Michael had found that the Assembly has no power to appoint, dismiss or promote the staff that works for it; rather, it is the function of the Public Service Commission. Sir Michael called it “astonishing,” saying it could lead to “undesirable consequences.” He noted that some staff had not had their appointments confirmed after several years in the post, despite several letters from the Clerk asking for their appointment to be confirmed. Additionally, he had found that half the staff had been employed on a temporary basis.
The Government has identified improvement of Fiduciary Oversight as an important aspect of its work on development of good governance. Thirty recommendations for improving fiduciary oversight through strengthening of the National Assembly, the Financial Sector and the Integrity Commission were adopted by stakeholders for implementation.
As a result, the reforms aimed to strengthen the National Assembly as a Fiduciary Oversight body, through capacity building for special committees, including the Public Accounts and Economic Service Committees and the Management Committee of Parliament.
