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| The Most Hon. Juliet Holness - Speaker of The House |
The following are a few concerns relating to House Speaker Juliet Holness and her rulings in the Jamaican Parliament.
- The Most Hon. Juliet Holness, Speaker of the House is also the wife of the Prime Minister.
- Her directive regarding the tabling of audit reports is unusual.
- Her authority and by extension the authority of parliament over the Clerk and the Deputy Clerk of the House is unusual.
First, the constitution states who can be elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House. The constitution does not state that a spouse of any house member cannot be the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House. The Speaker is elected by the house members and not appointed by the Prime Minister.
Since the Minister is the political head of ministries, audit reports should be sent to the Permanent Secretaries and the Ministers before being tabled in the House of Parliament. This would allow the Minister to meet with ministry officials and prepare appropriate responses for the public and also be able to respond to questions in parliament after the audit has been tabled.
The Speaker of the Lower House recommends the persons to act as Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Lower House. (See Section 47 (2) of the JA Constitution.) Civil Servants are appointed by the Services Commission? Do the Clerks fall under the civil service and are they eligible to become members of the Civil Service Association?
Parliament can dismiss the Clerk and/or the Deputy Clerk of the House by a two-thirds majority vote? Can parliament dismiss civil servants? (See Section 47 (5) of the JA Constitution.)
If the Speaker has reasons to believe that the Clerk's behaviour is not what is expected and a new Clerk is needed, the appropriate thing to do is to advise the members of parliament. It is the members of Parliament that will be called upon to decide the fate of the Clerk and not the Services Commission.
This article should not be seen as giving carte blanche support to all actions of the Speaker, but for us to review her actions.
NOTE: I am not a lawyer, but we all should discuss and understand these issues. Jamaica belongs to all of us. Please share this post with as many persons as possible and remember to add your comments.
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Selvin Martin
Selvin Martin your brother Morris is trying to make contact with you. You lived in Turnberry in St. Ann and attended the Turnberry All-Age School. You left the community between 1979 to 1980. Please send a WhatsApp Message to 876 816-5261 so I can pass on your contact information to your brother.
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I feel as if Jamaica is being run in the bedroom of Holness and his wife. It does not look clean. It does not look good at all.
ReplyDeleteIt can look as well as be so, because we have elected representatives thinking in hindsight and not in foresight. The conflict of interest should have come out from the day the House needed a speaker not when she is duly elected and executing the duties. When we speak of "yam head" all versions of it are our elected representatives.
DeleteAnyone who feels that Jamaica is being run in the bedroom of Holness and his wife or that there is conflict of interest need to go sit with a counsellor to fix their nasty mentality.
DeleteWeather she is married to the pm or not them just a fight her down😁
ReplyDeleteA country should not be run by a family . Let's not return to the past.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that the people who are calling gor her removal, has not put forward a suitable replacement.
ReplyDeleteIt is very easy to call for replacement or resignations if that's all you are contributing.
I must say however, that the perception issue wil never go away with said connection. And the JLP must come to terms with that, and move on with more important things, such as sorting out all tge other things like SSL, all the money that's being paid out for building that has no occupants, the implementations of more cameras on the roads of jamaica to hopefully address the weekly carnage and loss of lives, lot's more important things to be concentrating on.