“UNTENABLE”: Speakers lashes executive amid renewed calls for autonomy of Parliament

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Speaker of the House of Assembly Halson Moultrie today said he cannot continue to support the rules and mandate of Parliament that allows the executive to pull the institution along “like a dinghy boat” and deny the constitutional rights of some members.

Tuesday marked the 291st anniversary of parliamentary democracy in The Bahamas.

However, the speaker said Parliament in The Bahamas does not have the level of independence enjoyed by some of the youngest Parliaments in the British Commonwealth.

“I cannot accept that in the year 2020, some 291 years after the establishment of the Parliament of The Bahamas, which is the first arm of government is still being pulled along by the executive branch of government like a dinghy boat, hitched to the membership or the mothership,” Moultrie said in Parliament.

“Honourable members, this state of affairs is untenable.”

Article 72 (1) of the constitution provides for a Cabinet, which has general direction and control of the government and shall be collectively responsible to Parliament.

Moultrie said parliamentarians cannot continue to turn a “deaf ear to this constitutional mandate. He underscored a fundamental purpose of Parliament is to scrutinize the executive branch, which is “constitutionally duty-bound to submit itself to parliamentary scrutiny”.

“Honourable members, this is the essence of accountability and transparency and the Westminster model,” he said.

“It was to accommodate this function that the committee system of Parliament was evolved.”

Moultrie reconstitution a range of committees, including the Houses’ Library Committee, Committee on Privilege, Public Accounts Committee, Rules and Business Committee, Public Treasury Committee, and Broadcasting Committee, among others.

The speaker said while the role of the chair is multi-faceted, the most fundamental was the maintenance of the constitutional relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government.

He said the Cabinet must always be accountable and responsible to Parliament.

He said that can only happen in an atmosphere of distinction, exclusivity, and independence, which will only come about with “humble recognition” of the equality of all parliamentarians, especially those “draped in the transitory privileges of the executive”.

Moultrie said: “This separation of powers should never be diluted, never be breached or fused as it is today.”

Power

Moultrie said the Parliament remains under the complete control of the executive branch and lacks even basic tools to carry out its constitutional mandate.

He lamented the functioning of the committee system — “the very heartbeat of Parliament” — has been designed to ensure those committees to not function.

“Two-hundred and ninety-one years later, the Parliament of The Bahamas is operating under rules that are designed to deny members of their constitutional rights as members of Parliament, particularly the members of the opposition or minority parties and independents,” the speaker said.

“That cannot be right and I cannot support it.

“Two-hundred and ninety-one years later, we have not come to terms with the fact that ministers are accountable to the Parliament for their stewardship and ministers must answer questions.

“Two-hundred and ninety-one years later, the concept of the separation of powers is held in such a brazen contempt that staff members of Parliament are actually listed as members of the Cabinet and the secretary to the Cabinet is the accounting officer of the Parliament.

“The speaker cannot purchase a toothpick without the approval of the secretary to the Cabinet, 291 years later.”

According to the speaker, the personal assistant to the speaker tendered her resignation after working for six months without pay. He also advised that the House Chaplin, after completing her term with Parliament, had yet to be paid.

Security

Moultrie said he has been unable to obtain an office in Parliament after three years of requesting.

He said he “suffers the indignity” of functioning in an office with no running water, no bathroom facility, but an outside toilet, and which faces security issues in an environment where “convicted criminals and those accused are using the same facility”.

He said there was more than sufficient space in the Senate building to accommodate an office for the speaker of the House.

Moultrie held up a Royal Bahamas Police Force report, which he did not table because of the security issues contained within.

He said: “The assessment determined that the speaker’s office is unfit for the leader of the legislative branch and not only unfit, is a security risk and exposes the speaker unnecessarily to the risk that could threaten his life”.

Moultrie has expressed the need for the separation of powers and autonomy of the Parliament for over two decades, long before he became speaker of the House three years ago.

The speaker acknowledged that his personality or he himself might represent a challenge for some members, but he insisted that the occupant of the chair should not sway the respect of the offices of state.

In response, Minister of Public Works Desmond Bannister said the existing office of the speaker was not worthy. He advised the speaker that if there was anything his ministry can do to assist “I certainly would wish to be able to work with you in any respect having regard to limitations on funding”.

About Royston Jones Jr.

Royston Jones Jr. is a senior digital reporter and occasional TV news anchor at Eyewitness News. Since joining Eyewitness News as a digital reporter in 2018, he has done both digital and broadcast reporting, notably providing the electoral analysis for Eyewitness News’ inaugural election night coverage, “Decision Now 2021”.