Press Releases

The National Assembly resumed on, October 10, after its constitutionally mandated three month recess. Though no Sitting of the National Assembly has been held, to date, several Committees have already begun work. Last Wednesday, the Parliamentary Management Committee, which is chaired by the Speaker, met and discussed several matters of importance, including the a possible date for the next Sitting; Parliament’s role in the Lead Project; training, workshops and conferences to be attended by Members of Parliament; and the return visit to the Parliament of Suriname- this visit would be the result of an invitation made by the Surinamese Speaker who visited Guyana in October- and aims at establishing a formal relationship between the two Parliaments. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association also met on Wednesday to consider the report of the 16th Biennial Regional Conference of Presiding Officers and Clerks of the Caribbean, the Americas and the Atlantic Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and to look at several other issues on that Committee’s agenda.

The Special Select Committee on the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013-Bill22/2013 also met and the Chairperson, Ms. Gail Teixeira, briefed the Members of the meeting on Guyana’s appearance before the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in June of this year. The Public Accounts Committee, chaired by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Mr. Carl Greenidge, met yesterday to reschedule dates for the examination of agencies in the report of the Auditor General on the public accounts of Guyana for the year 2012, and to consider outstanding matters to be addressed by the Auditor General, the Finance Secretary and the Accountant General. This Committee is expected to meet again on Monday, October 27. In addition to these meetings, the Foreign Relations Committee would be visiting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Re-migrant Section and Protocol Division- on Wednesday October 29 to discuss issues relating remigration etc., and to examine the operations of the existing system in the Protocol Division.