The second reading of the Leader of the Opposition Benefits and Other Facilities Bill 2009 was on Thursday deferred for the fifth time, without any reason being presented to the National Assembly.
When Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh asked that the debate on the bill be deferred, he did not give a reason for making this request.
Two Thursdays ago, PNCR-1G Chief Whip Lance Carberry, at the party’s weekly press briefing, was asked about the continuous deferral of this bill, and he said he was “baffled” at this occurrence.
On Thursday, Carberry told Stabroek News that the members of the government were yet to give the opposition party a reasonable explanation as to why the bill was being deferred. He said that the bill was a “straightforward” piece of legislation that seeks to put on record the accurate benefits to be accrued to the Leader of the Opposition.
Carberry pointed out that it was the government which took the initiative to table this bill and said that the PNCR-1G supported it because the party wanted it to be a matter of transparency. He also said that it was not a case where current Opposition Leader Robert Corbin alone would benefit but also all persons who hold this post in the future.
Last Friday at the party’s press conference Corbin was asked to comment on the issue and he said that the bill appeared in the Parliament “as a smokescreen at the time to defray attention from the other bills” that were tabled, including the Former Presidents’ Benefits Bill.
Corbin said the opposition was not consulted on the bill. But he suggested that the bill may have had its genesis in discussions he had with the President back in 2003. He said then he had called for the regularization of some of the practices which were in existence for years, inclusive of the benefits that the Leader of the Opposition was to receive. Corbin pointed out though that certain elements of this bill clearly were not reflective of whatever came out of these discussions.
The Leader of the Opposi-tion (Benefits and Other Facilities) Bill 2009 provides by statute access to amenities and benefits by the holder of the office, having regard to the services and dignity attached to the office.
According to the bill, the holder of the office shall be entitled at government expense to rent-free furnished office accommodation; medical attention, including medical treatment or reimbursement of medical expenses incurred by him for himself and the dependent members of his family; full-time security service at his official place of residence; the services of a secretary or an executive secretary, a chauffeur, a gardener and a domestic servant; and vacation allowance as is applicable to a minister.
The bill was tabled by the Minister of Finance on April 30.
