Speaker disallows motion to send Gov’t Ministers before Privileges Committee

Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland on Monday disallowed a motion submitted by Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira to send Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo to the Privileges Committee.

Any matter which appears to affect the powers and privileges of the Assembly is referred to this Committee whose duty is to consider any such matter and to report thereon to the Assembly.

The motion was submitted on April 26 to the Speaker of the National Assembly, in relation to remarks made by Trotman who told the Assembly that “we were met with an alarming situation where we discovered that 100% or all of our productive forest was allocated by the past Government” on February 11. This comment was supported by Nagamootoo on February 12.

The PPP claimed that this is a blatant lie, attempting to garner an apology from the Government Ministers on April, 26, however, the Natural Resources Minister said his statement arose out of a report from the Guyana Forestry Commission.

The PPP MP, Teixeira, then proceeded to submit a letter and the motion to the Speaker on May 04, 2016.

The Speaker told the House on Monday that he “examined the documents and determined that a prima facie case of breach of privilege has not been made. In the circumstances, the request and motion…are disallowed.”

To this Teixeira shouted, “not surprised, I thought you would’ve surprised me.”

The Speaker, however, earlier in his address clarified that “the action of the Speaker in this regard, can bear no parallel with any other matter which may in the future engage or is presently engaging the speaker.”