PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE FUNCTIONING OF PARLIAMENT
The Sint Maarten Christian Party welcomes two proposals made by President of Parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams, to improve the functioning of Parliament. One proposal increases the transparency and accountability of parliamentarians towards the voters and the other proposal improves the communication between parliament and the people. Unfortunately, our legislative representatives are not legally bound to inform the people about what is going on in parliament other than, via the public plenary and committee meetings, then we get to know what is happening. But we must not forget that committee meetings can also be held behind closed doors, which has been happening quite often. The 2015 Transparency International Report expressed great concern about the flow of information from parliament to the public. It is therefore commendable that the President of Parliament has decided to hold public consultations every other week. Unfortunately, the other fourteen parliamentarians are not obliged to follow her example.
On March 27th, SMCP submitted a letter to the Honorable President of Parliament, giving several suggestions as to how to improve communications between parliament and the people. Here are two of the suggestions. Monthly press briefings: about what parliament is doing, and Weekly meetings with a Minister: in order to keep parliament and the public abreast of what is taking place at the executive level of government. The President of Parliament’s proposal, to have members of parliament disclose all their functions, is a giant step towards raising the level of integrity, transparency and accountability of parliament. Transparency International as well as Bob Wit’s Integrity Report expressed great concern regarding this topic.
The proposal by the President of Parliament to strike the word “public” from Article 107 of the Election Ordinance is a fast and easy way to begin to improve transparency and accountability in Parliament. The SMCP leader urged the President to work on this matter immediately because if this amendment is presented close to election time, parliamentarians can drag their feet, and it might not be ready in time for a new parliament. MP Wescot-Williams, chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee of Integrity, has raised the issue of public disclosure of functions several times in committee meetings but our honorable MP’s apparently do not want to deal with this issue.
In order to raise the level of integrity in parliament, in government and in the civil service, it is imperative that Sint Maarten establishes a separate independent Integrity Chamber. The Minister of General Affairs, the Honorable William Marlin, believes that the tasks of the Integrity Commission can be delegated to one or more of the High Councils of State. His idea of “we can fix we” pet phrase, cannot work. These council referred to, are advisory bodies and were not intended or designed to execute controlling and supervisory tasks. Take for example the General Audit Chamber. It executes its task, sends its reports to parliament which, up to this point, has never discussed or followed up on the advices of this Chamber. This is evidence that “we cannot fix we”.
The Parliament is urged to be critical of the Governing Program which only outlines what Government plans to do but makes no mention of when, where and how Government intends to execute these plans and how much it will cost. The governing program is also silent, on the sequencing and priority of its plans. Parliament should take note that, this governing program does not provide sufficient information to enable Parliament to perform any type of control.
Written by SMCP leader Wycliffe Smith
Edited by Wendell Moore
