Senate Inquiry Postponed Yet Again

Turning now to parliament… This morning, a scheduled senate inquiry into Portico’s controversial Definitive Agreement was placed on hold yet again after the Office of the Attorney General wrote to the chair of the Senate Special Select Committee on Friday, indicating that the upper house remains on recess.  The Senate has been on break since the start of Holy Week and continues to be on time off.  Despite explaining the need to get on with the process, Chairperson Janelle Chanona was advised that decisions taken by the committee during this period could be challenged in a court of law.  Here’s what she shared regarding the postponement earlier today.

 

Janelle Chanona, Chair, Senate Inquiry

“What has happened today is that on March twenty-seventh, we set a date for back-to-back public hearings today, the twenty-second and the twenty-third.  Friday evening, at six p.m., we were forwarded a legal memo from the attorney general’s ministry indicating to the President of the Senate that there are two things that would prevent today’s meeting.  One is that the senate is on recess since Holy Week and two, that as a result of being on recess that the committee should not be working because decisions taken at the committee meeting may be legally challengeable.  We responded Saturday morning to that legal memo content indicating, again, our TOR speaks to working expeditiously and urgently and that we had set this meeting for quite some time, that we were relying on the guidance provided by the National Assembly, the Office of the Clerk, in terms of parliamentary practice and procedure, and that everything was set up for Monday morning.  And up to Sunday, last night, we got a response again, after hours, from the Office of the President, indicating that the decision was not just to cancel our committee meeting, but to advise that the committee meeting should not proceed, but that all committee meetings scheduled outside of recess be canceled, or within recess, be canceled.  I’ve been here since March 2022, I think it’s definitely an opportunity for everyone to learn.  What we do lament and what we place on record is the timing.  Had we been able to get this legal opinion which I will say right off [the bat], it’s the very first time a legal opinion on such procedure has been asked for and received.  But it is regrettable that Friday evening into the weekend for a Monday morning meeting that this transpired.”