Phyllis Thomas, Enterprise Editor
PATTERSON, HENRY, SPENCER, CHARLES, ROBINSON, BLAKE, BAUGH, BLYTHE
MANY OF the island's Members of Parliament (MPs) have shied away from attending crucial committee meetings to deal with important national issues.
Some of the committees affected include the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, those deliberating on the Human Resource and Social Development, the Terrorism Prevention Act, The Charter of Rights Bill and the Joint Select Committee on Private Bills.
Meetings have been abandoned for want of a quorum, this, sometimes, in the presence of members of the public who had been invited to attend.
Many of these committees are mandated to examine policy documents and statements from ministries and government agencies, entertain views from citizens, community groups and sectoral organisations and facilitate discussion on the operations of government and their effect on the society as the public interest may demand.
The situation has angered the Speaker of the House Michael Peart who believes that the MPs should suffer the consequences of their delinquency.
"It has posed a problem where it is embarrassing. Sometimes we invite the private sector and they sit there waiting and eventually have to leave," he said.
Mr. Peart said that sometimes even the Finance Committee is affected by absenteeism and lateness. He said the only committee that is not affected is the Public Accounts Committee because that is "the centre of attraction".
He therefore wants existing fines for absenteeism to be increased to "something that will hurt."
But Members of Parliament are paid $300 per sitting for attending House meetings only. They are not paid to attend meetings of the parliamentary committees, only the chairmen of these committees and Senators are paid and that sum is $2,000 per sitting for the chairmen and $1,000 for Senators. So while the accountants at Gordon House have made deductions of $11,000 from the parliamentary salaries of MPs for non-attendance of House meetings and failure to explain their absence for the months of February and March this year, they have not been docked for failure to attend committee meetings.
The attendance records, in the meantime, tell tales of MPs not attending a single meeting of committees on which they are appointed, for the entire parliamentary year.
Records show only two MPs turning up for a meeting comprising nine MPs and three Senators. For example, the meeting of the committee dealing with Private Bills held on February 16, 2005 only Dr. Neil McGill (PNP) and Verna Parchment (JLP) attended. Two of three Senators on that committee attended. Only four members attended when this meeting was held in September 2003.
Dr. Karl Blythe (PNP) and Lester 'Mike' Henry (JLP) have not attended one meeting of the Human Resource and Social Development Committee which held nine meetings between October 1, 2003 and March 16, 2004. Rudyard Spencer (JLP) attended once and Pearnel Charles (JLP), two times. In fact when the committee had its last sitting on March 16, 2004, only four of the 14 members attended. Of the three sittings of that committee so far this year, Dr. Blythe, Lenworth Blake (PNP), Shahine Robinson (JLP) and Dr. Kenneth Baugh (JLP) have not attended any. Rudyard Spencer, Lester 'Mike' Henry and Pearnel Charles attended once.
Of the four meetings of the Standing Finance Committee of the Whole House of Representatives held between April 5 and April 14, Prime Minister P. J. Patterson (PNP), Abraham Dabdoub (JLP), Errol Ennis (PNP) have not attended any.
The Family Property (Rights of Spouses) Act had 13 meetings between October 2003 and January 2004 but Olivia 'Babsy' Grange (JLP), the only female member of the group of 13 MPs and Senators never attended one meeting. John Junor attended only once. At the meeting of this committee, held on December 9, 2003 not one single MP attended. Only two Senators turned up. The Agricultural Produce Act's five meetings were not attended by Errol Ennis (PNP) and Delroy Chuck (JLP).
On the other hand, some MPs had good attendance record, like Dr. McGill and Delroy Chuck whose failure to a attend a few meetings blemished their otherwise good record. For most of the committees on which he has been nominated to serve, McGill attended every sitting.
Several committees never had a single meeting, for example, during the parliamentary year which began March 31, 2004 some 12 parliamentary committees did not meet at all, although MPs were named for them. These include the Local Government Reform Committee which was named on March 31, 2004, the Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee, appointed on that same date, the Joint Select Committee on Flexi Work Arrangements and the committee on Economy and Production. But it was explained that that might be due to that fact that they did not have an issue before them. It could also mean that no one turned up. Further explanations are that sometimes the members send in apologies for their non-attendance or there are occasions when they say ahead of time that they will not attend.
Watch The Gleaner to see how the MPs attended the meetings of the House - information acquired under the Access to Information Act.
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