Gail Alexan­der

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar should apol­o­gise to Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes for in­cor­rect­ly claim­ing no no­ti­fi­ca­tion was sent to Par­lia­ment by the Pres­i­dent on a new Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion mem­ber, says Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the Low­er House.

Com­ment­ing on the Op­po­si­tion’s claim, which the Of­fice of Pres­i­dent re­butted yes­ter­day, Robin­son-Reg­is said what T&T has, “... Is noth­ing more than a leader who does not take her role se­ri­ous­ly and is dis­re­spect­ful to those in au­thor­i­ty—Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC is guilty of dere­lic­tion of du­ty.”

Robin­son-Reg­is ac­cused Per­sad-Bisses­sar of on­ly read­ing “...ill-pre­pared, point­less speech­es and try­ing to hin­der the Par­lia­men­tary agen­da. She ne­glects Par­lia­ment and all re­spon­si­bil­i­ties that come with her of­fice.”

Ac­cus­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar of be­ing in­ept, Robin­son-Reg­is said on June 10, 2020, the Pres­i­dent’s no­ti­fi­ca­tion to Par­lia­ment for the ap­point­ment of Vin­cel Ed­wards as a PSC mem­ber was re­ceived by the Clerk of House.

“The Pres­i­dent, as is re­quired by the Con­sti­tu­tion, in­di­cat­ed quite clear­ly in the no­ti­fi­ca­tion she had con­sult­ed both the Prime Min­is­ter and the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. On the Or­der Pa­per of Fri­day, Ju­ly 3, 2020, the last sit­ting of the 11th Par­lia­ment, there was the Mo­tion to Con­firm Mr Ed­wards. With the gen­er­al elec­tion loom­ing the mo­tion lapsed. If the Op­po­si­tion Leader would read the Stand­ing Or­ders, she would know a mo­tion could on­ly be re­turned to the Or­der Pa­per on the in­struc­tion of the Leader of the House.”

Robin­son-Reg­is added, “On Sep­tem­ber 15, 2021, I gave the Clerk of the House the in­struc­tion that the no­ti­fi­ca­tion should ap­pear on the next Or­der Pa­per. The Low­er House has not re­con­vened a sit­ting since that in­struc­tion was giv­en to the Clerk of the House. With lack of par­lia­men­tary and le­gal ex­pe­ri­ence on the oth­er side, I, there­fore, think it may be nec­es­sary to say that the no­ti­fi­ca­tion con­tin­ues to re­main valid un­til dis­pensed.”

Robin­son-Reg­is said it is still a no­ti­fi­ca­tion be­fore Par­lia­ment and as such is, there­fore, still valid.

“It will re­main pend­ing un­til it is com­plete then it will re­turn to the Pres­i­dent’s House for her at­ten­tion,’’ Robin­son-Reg­is said.

“Con­se­quent­ly, for the Op­po­si­tion Leader to claim that with re­spect to ap­point­ing a com­mis­sion mem­ber there is noth­ing be­fore the Par­lia­ment, is to show how dis­con­nect­ed she is from what goes on at the Par­lia­ment, but what is worse, to ac­cuse the Pres­i­dent of not con­sult­ing her, as re­quired by the Con­sti­tu­tion, is quite an­oth­er mat­ter and clear­ly shows Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s in­com­pe­tence, and I ques­tion her re­la­tion­ship with the truth.”

She added, “It ap­pears Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar should have at­tend­ed a tea par­ty rather than a cock­tail par­ty pri­or to send­ing out her last state­ment to the me­dia ac­cus­ing Her Ex­cel­len­cy of be­ing less than hon­est. I trust that up­on sober re­flec­tion, Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar will apol­o­gise to Her Ex­cel­len­cy and the na­tion.”