Amid a damning report on the loss of parliamentary transcripts for the period 1985 to 1992, questions are being raised as to how none of these documents had been transformed into Hansards up to the year 2003 and why no one either on the government or the opposition benches moved to ensure that they were safeguarded.
A mystery shrouds the loss of the record of parliamentary proceedings for the entire tenure of late reformist PNC President Desmond Hoyte and Carl Greenidge – Finance Minister during those years – remains unconvinced that every effort was made to salvage and reconstruct documents which Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman said could have been water-damaged owing to a leak in the roof.
After an inquiry into the disappearance or destruction of the records, initiated upon a motion by Greenidge that was approved by the National Assembly, Speaker Trotman expressed reservation about whether the