Parliamentary Committees finally established; Meetings likely this week

After months of delay, the Committee of Selection met on Friday, and reconstituted a total of 13 Parliamentary Committees. However, attempts by the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to nominate Leader of Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), MP Amanza Walton-Desir to several of those committees failed.

The Parliamentary Management Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, the Standing Orders Committee, and the Sectoral Committees on Economic Services, Foreign Relations, Social Services and Natural Resources are among the 13 committees reconstituted.

However, their reconstitution comes seven months after the First Sitting of the National of the National Assembly was held in November 2025.

In an interview with News Source, the Opposition Chief, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley said notwithstanding the extensive delays, the Opposition is pleased to have the committees established.

MP Sarabo-Halley said on all the Committees, the Opposition, in particular WIN and APNU, is represented, but said attempts to nominate FGM Member of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir to a number of the committees were rejected by the Chairman of the Committee of Selection, Manzoor Nadir, on the grounds that FGM did not secure enough votes to land a spot on the committees.

“Both WIN and APNU attempted to nominate the Leader of Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton-Desir to some committees but the chair refused. He said based on the document he was using to determine how many persons were eligible to be on the committees, she did not receive the number of votes to allow her to be on any of them – this despite both WIN and APNU both agreeing that she should be on some of the committees,” the Opposition Chief Whip explained.

MP Sarabo-Halley said while the Committees have been reconstituted, it is only the first step. Noting that there is much work to be done by the Committees, the WIN MP said it is important for the Parliamentary Committees to be allowed to execute their work without further delays or disruptions.

“While this is the first step in the process, the reality is, there have been times in the past, most times in the past, the committees are constituted but the actual working of the committees have often times been stalled due to not being quorate or last minute changes, persons saying they are out of the country or have other pressing matters to deal with that would then not allow committees to meet to actually meet,” the Opposition Chief Whip said.

She said the Government is guilty of not convening meetings of the committees regularly, in the past. However, MP Sarabo-Halley said the Speaker, who is mandated to call the first set of meetings, has assured that the first meeting of the committees will be called this week.

In a separate interview, APNU Member of Parliament, Ganesh Mahipaul also expressed disappointment that it took the Chair of the Committee of Selection more than seven months before a meeting was called to appoint MPs to the various committees.

Despite the delay, he expressed satisfaction with the composition of the 13 committees.

“There are 13 committees of the National Assembly, and all 13 were properly constituted today, which includes the Parliamentary Management Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, the Sectoral Committees on Economic Services, Foreign Relations, the Committee on the Security Sector, the Standing Orders Committee, Assembly Committees, 13 in total. All are properly constituted,” he said.

MP Mahipaul said now that the Committees have been reconstituted, it is important for the Committees be allowed to do their work.

However, he said the Speaker must first call the first meeting for the election of the chairpersons.

The power, he said, lies in the hand of the Speaker.

“Given what we have seen in the past, you remember in the last Parliament how many months we had to wait for the PAC to be convened because the Speaker had to call that meeting, and he took months to do so. Given that he took several months to call for the Leader of the Opposition to be elected. Given that we have had so long to wait for the Committee of Selection to come into place to have these things, I don’t want to say that I would be wrong but given what we have seen, it is a fair conclusion that probably he would take couple more months because it seems as though it doesn’t bother him that he is really holding back the work of these committees, which are really the guardrails that protect our democracy. I think Manzoor has reached to a stage where he is giving up on the importance of protecting our democracy, and just going with the flow, just being a part of the cabal – that is enjoying the richness of this country – a small cabal called the People’s Progressive Party,” MP Mahipaul said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform, the Committee on Appointments, the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector, the Committee of Privileges, the Statutory Instruments Committee and the Assembly’s Committee are among the other committees that were established.

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