ROWLEY WRONG

Kamla: Parliament sitting in November was always our plan

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC, with THA Chief Secretary Orville London

As she announced Parliament would resume sittings next week Friday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday chastised Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley for his comments that Government had abandoned Parliament.

The Prime Minister was addressing a news conference following her meeting with members of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) at her St Clair office, when she digressed to deal with Rowley’s allegations.

Dr Keith Rowley knows fully well why the Parliament is not meeting, she said. And she slammed him, for his “disingenuous” call for the resumption of sittings of Parliament, knowing it was always the intention of the Government to reconvene the Parliament in November.

“The Government has not collapsed. The Government has continued to work assiduously on every single day,” the Prime Minister stated.

“You will recall that when we worked in August there were severe complaints about the Parliament sitting in August (normally the period when it takes its annual break),” she said.

The Parliament sat in September to debate the budget, she noted.

“And it was always understood that the Parliament would reconvene in November because the parliamentary staff—as were the parliamentarians—was overworked. So it is very disingenuous to say the Parliament is not sitting and the Government has collapsed.”

The Prime Minister recalled there was a time when there were no sittings of Parliament for eight months (during the 18/18 electoral tie in 2002) and Rowley, who was then a member of the People’s National Movement (PNM) government, made no adverse comment at that time.

“The Parliament has been out for several weeks, having the workload that we had in August, which is traditionally the month of the recess. August we worked, in September we worked, there had been long days and nights, many of you (reporters) would have been there (in the chamber) in the months of August and September. And therefore we felt it prudent (to take a break), it was always understood that we would resume in November,” she stressed.

The last time the House of Representatives met was on September 26 when the Standing Finance Committee concluded its historic deliberations and the 2014-2015 budget was finally passed.

The Senate last met on October 1…..READ MORE