By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
It is not a case where the government is deliberately seeking to act contrary to the will of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as it relates to the repercussions of the no-confidence motion that that court deemed validly passed. It is simply a case where the government is not clear as to the will of the court, Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, has said.
Harmon outlined this state of affairs as he hosted post-Cabinet press briefing this morning.
Harmon told the media that, in the written submissions it made to the CCJ on Monday last, the government requested clarity on whether Cabinet should be meeting further to the ruling that the no-confidence motion was validly passed.
Harmon said that the government now expects that on July 12, “the CCJ would clarify these matters.”
Harmon said that as it currently stands, “We have seen nothing that says that the Cabinet should not meet.”
On Tuesday last, Cabinet approved at least three bills and recommended that them to be placed before the National Assembly to be made law. Also, Cabinet noted the award of several contracts.
Today, Harmon was asked how soon the approved bills are expected to be placed before the National Assembly. He said, “as soon as possible.”
In response to further questions, Harmon said, “We expect Parliament to meet. The Parliament has not been prorogued. We expect that with the correct amount of work to be done in the National Assembly, the National Assembly will be called to conduct its business in a normal way.”
Harmon said that he was not in a position to give details on whether a parliamentary session has already been planned.
Guyana Standard further asked if the government is at all concerned about the probability that all its work regarding bills and so forth can be rendered ineffective if the CCJ “clarifies” that Cabinet should no longer exist.
The Director-General responded, “We have no worry about that. It is our duty as a government to govern and therefore every day we are in government we have to execute the mandate of governing and ensuring that the people’s business is taken care of. So preparation of bills, filing of bills, filing of matters in the National Assembly…these are normal functions of government and we will continue to perform those functions until such a time that there is a clear decision.”
