Golding: Speaker, other legislators undermining foundations of Gov’t
Published:Tuesday | October 31, 2023 | 12:09 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
OPPOSITION LEADER Mark Golding has criticised House Speaker Juliet Holness for not immediately sharing the attorney general’s opinion on the tabling in Parliament of reports from her department and the Integrity Commission.
Addressing a meeting of People’s National Party (PNP) supporters at the Montego Bay High School on the weekend, Golding, the president of the PNP, asserted that such a position erodes Jamaica’s governmental foundations.
“We have a situation where the auditor general and the Integrity Commission reports come to Parliament, and the Speaker of the House does not want to table them, and if they are not tabled, nobody knows what is in them. When the attorney general issues the opinion, he does so as a constitutional officer advising all of the public bodies, including the Parliament, of the legal position,” said Golding.
“The Speaker now, Mrs Holness, cannot be denying parliamentarians access to the opinion given to the attorney general on the very issues that we have sought to have the matter rectified. Something is wrong with our parliamentary procedures. We need more transparency and accountability, and Jamaica needs to stand up to these things because we have a creeping situation where we are undermining the very foundations of government in the country,” Golding argued.
On October 24, Holness told the House of Representatives that she had reviewed the attorney general’s opinion relating to the reports from the Integrity Commission, but that it was not “final”.
She indicated at that time that she had written to the attorney general for a final opinion on the matter.
That announcement came after Holness told Opposition legislator Julian Robinson during the October 10 sitting of the House that she would respond the next day on whether he would receive a copy of the attorney general’s opinion.
However, following an exchange with Robinson on October 24, Holness indicated that her predecessor, Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert – and not the House – had written to the attorney general.
However, the Opposition has argued that Dalrymple-Philibert made that correspondence in her capacity at that time as the Speaker of the House of Representatives to benefit the Parliament.
Prior to that discourse, Dalrymple-Philibert announced on July 4, when she was still House Speaker, that she would discontinue the practice of tabling reports from the Auditor General’s Department immediately, but would hold them for two months in keeping with Section 30(2) of the Financial Administration and Audit Act.
Golding also took aim at Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Sunday over the failure of the Integrity Commission to certify and publish his statutory declarations for 2021 and 2022.
“It is not a good look,” the PNP presdent said. “He is the prime minister of the country and the man’s declaration can’t be certified.
“Jamaica cannot put up with that, as we must have integrity in our Government and we must have integrity in public life,” said Golding.
“We [also] want to know about the six who they say they are investigating for illicit enrichment. Who are they?” he asked, again urging legislators under probe by the Integrity Commission to declare themselves.