~ Expected to discuss policies associated with draft 2012 budget ~
PHILIPSBURG--Parliament is scheduled to meet at 2:00pm Thursday, March 15, so that the seven members of the Council of Ministers can outline and discuss their respective ministries' policies associated with the draft 2012 budget.
The meeting was requested by the National Alliance (NA) Parliamentary group and the convocation was sent out by Clerk of Parliament J.D. Semeleer on Monday.
In keeping with the convocation notice, Justice Minister Roland Duncan is scheduled to be the first minister to take the floor to outline and discuss his ministry's policy when the meeting starts Thursday.
However, NA Members of Parliament (MPs) wrote President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell late Monday requesting an amendment to the order of the agenda points which it contends is "incorrect."
"In accordance with the requests submitted by the National Alliance faction on respectively Wednesday, March 7, and Thursday, March 8, we hereby request that the first agenda point be the one requested on Wednesday, and thus for the Minister of Finance to first make the requested presentation to Parliament," the letter signed by all five NA members stated.
They continued: "The second agenda point would then be for the individual members of the Council of Ministers to make their presentations, depicting their involvement and compliance in the mentioned process, policies and rules, as presented by the Minister of Finance."
And, in a covering note to Arrindell, NA leader William Marlin said it should be clear from the NA's requests that the intention is for the Minister of Finance to make his presentation first, followed by the other Ministers.
"We therefore request that the order of the agenda points be corrected and a revised convocation [be] sent out tomorrow, Tuesday. We cannot wait until the meeting is opened to make the change, as the Minister of Finance would not be present."
The National Alliance requested Thursday's meeting because it was not satisfied with the manner in which the draft 2012 budget was handled in the Central Committee of Parliament. In particular, it had complained that while Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto had made a 15-minute presentation on the budget to the Central Committee, no minister had explained the specific policies that had informed the allocation of funds to his or her ministry.
After repeated requests that such policy presentations be made by the ministers had not been honoured, NA MP Louie Laveist complained that there seemed to be an attempt to "marginalise Parliament" and he "announced that within 24 hours the National Alliance would submit a request for a special meeting to be called specifically to insist that the ministers respect the wishes of the people and appear before Parliament to discuss their policies.
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