Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs says that the failure to notify opposition parliamentarians of a meeting with visiting representatives of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) stemmed from the “gross incompetence” of a staff member attached to his office.
The controversy erupted after members of the opposition complained that they had not been informed about the engagement with the international body and only became aware of it approximately two hours before it commenced on June 11 through a “leaked” document.
Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) Amanza Walton-Desir was among those expressing concern, saying the opposition had received no formal communication regarding the engagement. “It’s not short notice; the government never sent us a notice. Somebody called us and leaked the document to us and asked if we knew about it. I don’t think the government wanted us there,” Walton-Desir told Kiskadee Watch on Friday.
However, Isaacs has rejected suggestions that the government orchestrated the situation and has instead placed responsibility on a member of his staff. According to him, it was only after he was informed that opposition parliamentarians had not received invitations that he instructed staff to verify whether any correspondence had been received from the EITI Secretariat requesting that his office disseminate the invitations.
“It was received last Friday when I was at Parliament. My personal assistant uplifted that envelope and this boy forgot to give it to me. I told him it’s more than negligence; it’s gross incompetence,” Isaacs told this publication.
He maintained that no government official had ever instructed him to withhold information from members of the opposition.
“The government is not to be blamed; the government has never instructed me to do anything. I want to apologise to say I am extremely sorry for what happened. I am still deciding whether to keep the personal assistant on the job. He is proceeding on leave from June 15, and I don’t know whether he would come back to the office,” he said.
Despite the apology, some opposition members remain unconvinced. We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Member of Parliament Tabitha Sarabo-Halley said she believes the failure to circulate the invitations was part of a deliberate effort to limit opposition participation in the meeting.
“I can’t say it was on the clerk. I understand that the Parliament is not as independent as we would like and the PPP has full control of what happens; what goes out, what doesn’t,” she said.
At the same time, Sarabo-Halley, who is the opposition Chief Whip, said she would not want any member of staff to lose his job over the incident, noting that she understood the environment in which public officers operate and that directives may sometimes originate from higher levels. She reiterated that she had no issue with the Clerk himself and believed that his apology was genuine.
According to her, the late notice meant that only two opposition parliamentarians were able to attend the engagement with the EITI delegation. Nevertheless, she said their participation proved fruitful, with the visiting team agreeing to hold another meeting in the coming days to facilitate engagement with more MPs.
Meanwhile, the leader of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Parliamentary team, Terrence Campbell said he was not inclined to believe that the Clerk had deliberately sought to keep opposition members in the dark. “I do not want to believe that it was a deliberate act, so I would take it that he forgot and leave it at that, or that he had not seen the document,” Campbell told Kiskadee Watch.
The EITI representatives are currently in Guyana as part of their engagement with stakeholders involved in promoting transparency and accountability in the country’s extractive sector. A validation assessment is to be released by the EITI at the end of the year.
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