The Leader of the Opposition will not be issuing nominations for the Macroeconomic or Investment committees under the Natural Resources Fund Act, government has been informed, as the Bill was debated after the passing of the no confidence motion.
“The Office of the Leader of the Opposition wishes to remind you that this activity which you seek to engage in, by inviting our nominations is unauthorized, outside of your constitutional mandate, and is not properly set in law,” Member of Parliament Juan Edghill wrote to Winston Jordan, the Minister of Finance.
Edghill referenced two correspondences addressed to Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for the submission of nominees to sit on the Investment Committee and the Macroeconomic Committee that will be established under the Natural Resource Fund Act No. 12 of 2019.
He noted that the Bill was debated after the December 21, 2018 no confidence motion, through which the government “was defeated by a minority vote on a motion of no-confidence”.
“In essence, your government and you lost the mandate to pursue such actions as you did on January 3, 2019; you proceeded even against the best of advice and public pronouncements made,” Edghill stated, further noting that the subsequent decision by the Caribbean Court of Justice on June 18 validated that the motion was validly passes and that the provisions of Article 106 (6) and 106 (7) were “immediately engaged”.
He further reminded that the consequential orders issued by the CCJ state clearly that the President and his Cabinet stood resigned at the passage of the motion and all actions following such are in their capacity as a “caretaker” or “interim government” and so the issue at hand is outside of their remit.
“There can be no appointment of members of either the Macroeconomic Committee or the Investment Committee. As such, there will be no nominations from the Leader of the Opposition…It is our hope that your government and you will comply with the Constitution and adhere to the rulings of the CCJ, in all matters,” Edghill added.
On January 3, in the political limbo following the successful December 21 no-confidence vote against the government, the controversial Natural Resources Fund Bill 2018 was passed in the National Assembly with no objection as the Opposition side of the House was not present.
The bill, which will cater for funds from oil production in 2020, was passed with minor amendments during Jordan’s moving of the second and third readings of the bill. He stressed that a Public Accountability Oversight Committee – as catered for in the bill – would be appointed.
The PPP/C boycotted the sitting as it said the motion of no confidence meant that the government was prevented from taking any major initiatives in Parliament.
