While the Guyana Government moves to implement legislative changes to support its economic and infrastructural plans, works are being stymied by an “incompetent and inefficient” main parliamentary opposition, says the country’s Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.
The senior minister, during his live “Issues in the News” programme on Tuesday, noted that some of these changes are needed to support both economic and infrastructural developmental ventures being pursued by the government. He however raised concerns over the alleged pussyfooting by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) legislators.
“Our country’s development agenda requires the requisite legislative support to cradle, support, and propel these economic ventures and other infrastructural and social sector ventures upon which we are embarking. However, many of these ventures cannot be accomplished unless we have a robust legal and regulatory framework to govern the implementation and operationalization of these projects. But our legislative agenda is constantly being slowed down and stymied because of an incompetent and inefficient opposition,” Nandlall said.
The AG said that the latest “example” of the opposition bogging down much-needed legislation is the party’s reported failure to submit feedback on the Data Protection Bill 2023, which is geared at buttressing the government’s Electronic Identification Card (e-ID) initiative.
He said that the bill was made public on April 15, 2023, and all stakeholders were invited to make submissions within 21 days, with the deadline being May 6, 2023. However, as of Tuesday last (May 2), Nandlall said that no submissions were received.
“No submissions despite the bill being made available online with an email address provided for submission. The opposition has failed to read the bill, relying instead on piggybacking criticisms made by civil society without any intellectual effort or original thought,” Nandlall said.
He added that this apparent lack of engagement constitutes a “gross dereliction of duty and misuse of public funds” since the opposition legislators are paid by taxpayers and granted facilities to do the work of the people.
The AG said that despite ample time provided for feedback, he anticipates that the opposition will still request additional time or advocate for the bill to be sent to a special-select committee, leading to more delays in the advancement of the e-Id card project.
