Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs says the task of preparing the Order Paper for sittings of the National Assembly is his and not the Parliamentary Management Committee, as posited by former Minister of Finance in the PNC administration Carl Greenidge.
The latter, in a comment to this newspaper on Monday, said that it was improper for an Order Paper to be prepared without the constituting of the PMC.
Isaacs referred to Standing Order 6.5, which states, “The Clerk shall be responsible for preparing and circulating to Members before the commencement of each sitting an Order Paper containing the business for that sitting.”
“The Parliamentary Management Committee is in no way responsible for the preparation of theOrder Paper. The Clerk of the National Assembly is solely responsible for the preparation of the Order Paper,” said Isaacs in an invited comment yesterday.
“Let’s go to Standing Order 14. It says in accordance with Standing Order, the Clerk of the National Assembly shall prepare an Order Paper for each sitting of the Assembly showing the business of the National Assembly in the sequence in which order or business is called on,” he said.
Isaacs said that the PMC has a responsibility for the business of the National Assembly as distinct from the preparation of the Order Paper. “All bills etc, before they are placed on the Order Paper should be discussed at the level of the PMC,” the Clerk said.
The Order Paper for Friday’s sitting, at which the President is to make an address, includes two financial papers totaling $5.6 billion in additional expenditure for 2011, the Auditor General’s Report for 2010, the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2012, and a Motion for the Nomination of Members to the Committee of Selection.
“I think I can safely say that all arrangements are in place for the ceremonial opening. I have met with the Joint Services last week with respect to traffic arrangements, for the Police Band, security etc. I sent out invitations to all the dignitaries that are normally invited to the ceremonial opening of the Parliament,” he said.
“The Order Paper has been prepared and circulated to the Members of the National Assembly. I have communicated to the Office of the President for the President to be informed for the ceremonial opening. All in all everything is in place,” the Clerk said.
Asked about the readiness of the Chamber for the big event, he said, “I think the Chamber is ready. We are working on some chairs for the MPs lounge. I think that is the last thing to be done.”
Stemming from a meeting held last week between the members of the media and the Speaker and Clerk of the National Assembly, there have been several changes to the way that the events in the House are televised. Commencing at Friday’s sitting, the National Communications Network would be the only camera actually set up in the Chamber, with the other television stations being able to receive a feed from NCN.
There will be a control room set up where persons from the other media houses can connect and receive a feed from NCN. This is to prevent the clutter of camera persons and their recording equipment and accoutrements from being an encumbrance to MPs and parliamentary staff during the sittings.
“We are also hoping to set up a projector and screen where they can see what is happening,” said Parliament’s Public Relations Officer Oniecka Alphonso-Walton.
On the issue of traffic management around the precincts of Parliament Building, the Clerk said that subsequent to the meeting with the members of the media, the Speaker met with the acting Commissioner of Police.
“Commissioner acting [Leroy] Brummel has promised to look into it. So we may see some new arrangements in that area,” said Isaacs. At the meeting the Speaker had expressed a concern about the chaos that is created in that part of the City when the traffic around Parliament is restricted to almost gridlock proportions.
