…as Govt, Opposition fight over Patterson
….Clerk of the National Assembly to seek legal advice
By Svetlana Marshall
The work of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee remains in limbo as the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) unsuccessfully tries to remove David Patterson from the chairmanship.
After a six-week hiatus, the Public Accounts Committee met on Monday at the Public Buildings. Village Voice News understands that when the 7th Meeting of the PAC was convened in the Parliament Chamber on Monday with Patterson as Chairman, Government’s Chief Whip and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira tabled an amendment to the agenda, requesting that her motion for the removal of Patterson be tabled for a second time.
On February 1, 2021, the PPP/C sponsored motion for the removal of Patterson was left hanging after none of the Members of the Opposition took up the chairmanship when Patterson rescued himself from the meeting. As such, the motion was not put to a vote and the meeting aborted.
On Monday, March 15, 2021, the situation was no different. Village Voice News was told that though the PPP/C used its one seat majority to support the amendment of the agenda to allow for the motion to be put to a vote, the Chairman rescued himself from the meeting, leaving his post vacant.
After a heated exchange of words between the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNI+AFC) Members of Parliament and the PPP/C Parliamentarians, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs was reportedly called in.
Isaacs was asked to clarify whether the Clerk of the Committee could assume the chairmanship if the Opposition MPs fail to do so. While the APNU+AFC agreed that the Clerk could take the Chair, the issue was whether the Clerk could put the motion to a vote and count it.
For legal advice, the Clerk of the National Assembly had reportedly turned to Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin, who is among the PPP/C MPs on the Committee but this did not find favour with the Opposition.
It was then that Isaacs opted to seek external legal advice on the matter.
When the issue first arose, the APNU+AFC Members of Parliament – Ganesh Mahipaul, Jermaine Figueira and Juretha Fernandes – accused the Government of attempting to usurp the powers of the Opposition at the level of the Committee.
MP Mahipaul said the motion – the first of its kind for a committee such as the PAC – was put before the Committee with little to no justification offered by the Government’s Chief Whip.
“Outside of that, the Standing Orders are very clear, the Standing Orders say that a Member of the Opposition must be the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. The Opposition has full confidence in Mr. David Patterson and we have given him that authority and that privilege to chair the Public Accounts Committee,” MP Mahipaul had told reporters.
Though Minister Teixeira has withheld her reason for the motion, it is believed that the motion is linked to recent reports, which suggested that Patterson, received more than $1.5M in gifts from the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, and other agencies during his time in office as Minister of Public Infrastructure. Additionally, Patterson was charged with fraud. Together with former General Manager of the Demerara Habour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) Rawlston Adams, Patterson was placed on $200,000 bail by Magistrate Leron Daly for allegedly defrauding the Demerara Habour Bridge of approximately $162.6M.
It is alleged that between November 18, 2016 and February 1, 2018, Patterson and Adams conspired with each other to defraud the Habour Bridge Corporation of $162, 635,015 during their facilitation of a project for the feasibility study and design of a new bridge.
However, the charge was instituted approximately three years after Patterson was cleared by the then Police Legal Advisor, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, of any wrongdoing.
