Attorney General Anil Nandlall is urging the withdrawal of APNU MP Volda Lawrence’s bill to make the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly independent, saying it violates the constitution.
Nandlall, who has advised President Donald Ramotar against supporting the bill if it is passed by the opposition, has written Speaker Raphael Trotman asking that consideration of the proposed legislation not go ahead.
The Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly Bill 2012, which is the first bill tabled by either of the two parliamentary opposition parties, sets out the responsibilities and authority of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly and provides for the establishment and administration of an independent Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly of Guyana.
The opposition’s intention is for the law to come into operation on November 1, 2012. Although APNU and AFC can combine to use their one seat majority to pass the bill, enactment would require the assent of President Donald Ramotar, who has already said he will not sign any bill into law that has not had the input of the executive.
Provisions set out in the bill are in keeping with recommendations of the 2005 Sir Michael Davies Needs Assessment of the National Assembly.
But Nandlall, who penned his concerns to the Speaker last Wednesday, in hopes that the legislation would be withdrawn, warns that the proposed changes are not in keeping with the provisions of the constitution. The bill, he explained, violates several articles of the Constitution, including Articles 158 and 171. As a result, he requested that the National Assembly not proceed with consideration of the bill and he noted that in the event that the National Assembly does go ahead with it, then the government would be unable to support it.
Article 8 of the Consti-tution declares the Constitu-tion to be the supreme law of Guyana and any law which is inconsistent with this shall be null and void to the extent to that inconsistency. “Therefore the National Assembly and in particular the Speaker must ensure that the National Assembly does not pass Bills which are violative of the Constitution when enacted,” Nandlall said.
He pointed to Article 158 of the Constitution, which provides for the appointments of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly and provides “very elaborately how the Clerk is to be appointed and how the Clerk is to be removed.” He added that Article 222 of the Constitution guarantees the remuneration package of the Clerk and the Constitution in several other places creates security of tenure for the Office of Clerk of the National Assembly.
“[The Offices of Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly] are already subjects of the Constitution and receives the highest protection,” said Nandlall. “To bring legislation to treat with this is to dilute the constitutional significance accorded to that office. To do so is to be violating both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution,” he said.
According to Nandlall, Article 171 of the Constitu-tion provides “very explicitly and clearly” that whenever a bill is presented which seeks to impose a charge on the Consolidated Fund or any other public fund, or will cause any payment to be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund or any other fund of Guyana, that bill must first receive the consent of the Cabinet “as signified by a minister.”
“When one examines the bill it is evident that it creates a whole host of offices the creation of which is to draw from the Consolidated Fund and Cabinet has not signified its support,” Nandlall said. “I hope that the Speaker will give due consideration to the request [to withdraw the Bill] and will grant it,” Nandlall said.
