The Opposition People’s Progressive Party today revealed that it intends to step up its scrutiny of the APNU+AFC coalition government at the Parliamentary level.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly press conference this afternoon admitted to reporters that many of his own Members of Parliament have been dropping the ball when it comes to holding the Government accountable in all of the Standing Committees at Parliament.
He said he met with Members of the Natural Resources Committee yesterday which includes Odinga Lumumba, Pauline Sukhai, Neil Kumar and Yvonne Pearson and registered his dissatisfaction with their questioning of Ministers and other government officials who appear before the very important Committee.
Jagdeo said there is definitely need for committee members to do more preparation before appearing at the meeting so that they can hold the government accountable.
“I told them that they have to prepare before, focus more and seek guidance from the other MPs… with good preparation they can do this,” he added.
Jagdeo said his members are not specialists in several areas but noted that they are smart and with good preparation, they will be able to do their jobs efficiently.
“Let me also say that it is not just the Natural Resources Committee but all the other Standing Committees we have to step up our representation.”
At the last meeting of the Natural Resources Committee, the PPP members with the exception of Chairman Odinga Lumumba failed to ask pertinent questions of the Minister and his team.
Over the next month, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson and officials of ExxonMobil are expected to appear before the Committee.
Jagdeo said he expects his members to be fully prepared and aware of the issues so that the right questions can be put forward and hopefully expose any shortcomings.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login