Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has called out the Prime Minister and many other government MPs for their failure to contribute to the Budget debate.
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert wrapped up the Budget debate on Tuesday evening, but several MPs including the Prime Minister failed to join the debate in the lower house.
“Has Keith Rowley come down with a case of pip which he has spread to his MPs or are they just cowards?” said the Siparia MP in a release on Wednesday who condemned the closure of the debate without many government MPs addressing the house.
She added, “This is the second consecutive year that the Rowley regime has chosen to unilaterally end a Budget Debate without contributions from key Ministers and MPs. Conventionally, MPs on both sides of the House are duty-bound by precedent, tradition and the very spirit of their Oath of Office to account in a budget debate to citizens.”
Persad-Bissessar continued that all MPs traditionally account to their constituents about the work they have done in the nation’s 41 constituencies, and the work they intend to do in the upcoming year.
She said, “Opposition MPs also usually raise crucial issues of governance on behalf of citizens, in the time-honored expectation that the Government MPs would give relevant answers.”
The Opposition Leader said that just half of the government bench contributed to the debate.
“Twelve out of twenty-three (almost 50%) Government MPs including several Ministers of Government holding key portfolios refused to contribute to this crucial debate. These include Ministers in charge of some of the most crucial sectors of our society, such as National Security, Energy, Labour, Planning and Social Development.”
The Opposition Leader questioned if the decision for many of these Ministers, including the Prime Minister, not to be involved in the debate was an attempt to avoid answering questions related to allegations of misappropriation of funds or corruption that may have been raised by the Opposition.