Deputy Speaker of Parliament Lenox Shuman wants a financial allocation to each Member of Parliament to enable them to make adequate submissions for the 2022 budget.
In a letter addressed to Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs, the deputy speaker argues that Parliament’s 2022 budget should grant each parliamentarian an allowance.
“The lack of budgetary allocation to each parliamentarian to equally represent their constituents can be viewed as a betrayal and possibly a violation of the spirit of the Constitution, [I] therefore ask that provisions are made in Budget 2022 for each parliamentarian to be given resources to permit them the rental of office space and the hiring of at least one assistant to address their constituent’s needs,” Shuman wrote.
He contends that since democracies thrive based on the ability of their elected officials to represent their constituents all elected representatives in Parliament should have the resources to do so.
“Where a representative is resource poor, the capacity to represent the peoples’ interest now becomes poor and thus weakens a democracy. The converse is also generally true,” Shuman maintained while arguing that a fully-funded government should be balanced with a fully-funded opposition.
Parliament Office in its 2021 budget allocated $37 million for the Office of the Opposition leader which is a fully-funded parliamentary position.
Shuman holds a seat in the National Assembly as a representative of a Joinder list of candidates which included his Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), A New United Guyana (ANUG) and The New Movement (TNM).
Sunday Stabroek reached out to Shuman but up to press time was unable to make contact however according to ANUG executive Ralph Ramkarran the proposal was never brought to the joinder.
“It hasn’t come to us and in the current electoral system … that’s a tall order,” Ramkarran noted.
He explained that if there were to be change to the system and Guyana began electing constituency representatives as is done in several other Caribbean countries then he could see such allocations being feasible as the representative should then have a physical office within their constituency.
