Government Chief Whip Gail Teixeira has refused to comment on the criticisms of the timing of the administration’s decision to seek to bring AFC Members of Parliament Khemraj Ramjattan and Cathy Hughes before the National Assembly’s Privileges Committee over conflicts of interests.
Teixeira admitted that she was aware that there are criticisms given the timing of the government’s decision to move against Ramjattan and Hughes but she noted that she will not add “conjecture on such things.”
Stabroek News asked why the government has taken over a year to set in motion its attempt to send Ramjattan and Hughes before the Privileges Committee and if the move was directly tied to the Speaker’s recent ruling that the Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh would be sent before the committee over the spending of $4.5 billion that was expressly denied by the National Assembly.
Teixeira stated that her letters to the Speaker of the House Raphael Trotman on July 15 was not the first time the issue was raised. She noted that when Hughes’ involvement with Sithe Global, the developer of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project became well known, the government had raised the issue of pecuniary interest.
Stabroek News asked Teixeira why then did the government not choose to act quickly. This publication pointed out that various critics have noted that the government’s lag was directly related to the fact that if the AFC had supported the parliamentary measures related to the project and the budget allocation for the Speciality Hospital the government would never have written the Speaker to have Hughes and Ramjattan sent before the committee.
Teixeira stated that she could not hypothesise if that would have been the case or no. She did state that it is always the hope that during the parliamentary proceedings the government side is able to win over the opposition side.
She said that Hughes had an obligation to declare her involvement in Sithe Global and her “pecuniary interest” and recuse herself from the voting process. She said that she could not speak for the entire government, but she and many others in the National Assembly were shocked to learn that Hughes and her husband Nigel Hughes, another prominent member of the AFC, were responsible for public relations and acted as Company Secretary for Amaila Falls Hydro Inc, respectively.
Stabroek News asked if this was not negligence on the part of the government to not be privy to the hierarchy of a company attached to a multi-million dollar investment.
Teixeira said that for parliamentarians the focus is to get bills passed. She said that parliamentarians would be aware of the technical aspect of projects, but would not always be aware of the lawyers and the transfers of roles.
She said that she herself was not aware of the Hughes’s links to Amaila Falls Hydro Inc. Teixeira added that Ramjattan’s pecuniary interest was also compelling since he had voted in favour of funding for the Speciality Hospital when he was the legal representative for one of the contract bidders in 2012 and subsequently voted against it in 2013 after his client was not awarded the contact. She noted that neither of the two parliamentarians acted accordingly in disclosing their conflict of interests.
The criticism of the government still remains that over a year after these issues were brought the attention of the public, it failed to act until the 15th of this month, just before the Speaker’s ruling on the Finance Minister.
Many critics have pointed out that the Speaker’s ruling was likely to be in favour of sending the minister before the Privileges Committee and the government moved to initiative its own motions in retaliation.
In an invited comment, Trotman said, “Last week I saw for the first time two letters that were styled as Motions [both are in the name of Teixeira] seeking to have the Honourable Members Khemraj Ramjattan and Catherine Hughes referred to the Privileges Committee. The accusation against both is that they committed unethical violations as both have/had conflict of interest issues which influenced their decisions with respect to the Amaila Falls project, the Marriott Hotel project and the Specialty Hospital project.”
He added, “As is the case with all motions that are received, I handed them to the Clerk for his input and advice regarding the decision I have to make as to whether or not to refer the matters to the Privileges Committee… When I have received the advice of the Clerk on both matters I will consider it in totality and make my decision accordingly.”
President Donald Ramotar on Saturday called Trotman’s actions unprofessional in sending Singh to the Privileges Committee. “I found the ruling rather strange,” Ramotar said, during a news conference at State House.
