With his government and party under constant pressure over the failure to keep promises for constitutional reform, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo yesterday noted that the Office of the Prime Minister has contributed $5 million of its budgetary allocation to the University of Guyana to kick start activities
This is while it is awaiting a special select committee of the Parliament to consider a draft bill to set up a constitutional reform commission.
“Until such a time that we have in place a constitutional reform commission, we cannot move forward with consultations on reform without that commission,” he said.
Asked at yesterday’s sitting of the National Assembly how the funds were used for constitutional reform at the university, Nagamootoo said, “There have been events sponsored by the Office of the Prime Minister to have consultation at the University of Guyana in partnership with the United Nations Organisation in Guyana, the Carter Center and to have outreach with students and interested parties on a process of constitutional reform.”
The funds, he told Stabroek News during the tea break, “is to kick start the consultative process, to start exploring areas to find out from academicians what they find in the constitution for reform.”
He added, “I have also set in train a second phase of the programme with the University of Guyana, through outreaches in several parts of Guyana, to sensitise people about the constitution and to get feedback on how much they know about its provisions and what the constitution means to them.”
On July 27 last year, twenty-six months after it took office and following breaches of its manifesto commitments, the APNU+ AFC government took a key step towards constitutional reform by tabling a bill for a consultative commission. Not much has happened since.
The Constitutional Reform Consultative Commission Bill 2017 was read a first time on July 27, 2017 by Nagamootoo. According to the explanatory memorandum, the bill is aimed at reforming the charter so that it is more inclusive, democratic and transparent.
Clause four of the bill says that the Commission shall be composed of 15 persons including constitutional experts, a retired judge, a law tutor, nominees from each of the parliamentary parties and nominees from other groups including the trade union movement, the Guyana Bar Association and the Toshaos’ Council.
In its manifesto for the 2015 general elections, APNU+AFC had said that within three months of taking office it would appoint a Commission to amend the Constitution with the full participation of the people, which among other things, would reduce the powers of the president. This did not happen.
Instead, it appointed the Steering Committee on Constitutional Reform (SCCR) in September 2015. The SCCR submitted a report to the government on April 30, 2016. This report was not released to the public though it was reported on by this newspaper.
The government also invited a team from the United Nations system to evaluate the conditions for constitutional reform among other areas. The UN experts produced a report which was also not circulated by the government but was reported on by Stabroek News.
Noting yesterday that the special select committee has not been meeting as it should, Nagamootoo said, “I have written the Attorney General to ask that they meet to
discuss this constitutional reform bill. I have not had a response so far.”
“I am waiting on that committee to consider that draft bill to bring it back to the house to have it approved. If it is approved it means we will proceed to set up the constitutional reform commission which will then go house-to-house in 300 geographic locations, as advised, and to take evidence from people.
“It does not mean that nothing is happening in relation to constitutional reform, Nagamootoo said.
He will be printing “at least” 500 copies of the Constitution and in the first instance will give every Amerindian community a copy so they can start the process of examining it.
“Many people have said that they have never seen the Constitution. How are we going to talk about what is going to be changed if they do not know what it says? We are going to start incrementally with some of the monies that we have to make the constitution accessible,” he said.
Awareness on aspects of the Constitution will be tied to radio and television, he said. Now that there are six regional radio stations, he said, the issue could be discussed locally even in the Indigenous Peoples languages.
However, he said that until the constitutional reform commission in place, the countrywide consultation process would not be able to move forward.
