HOUSE IN SHAMBLES
Holness says Curtis’ actions amount to ‘dereliction of duty’; clerk of the House declines comment
A MAJOR development is unfolding in the saga of the non-tabling of reports from the auditor general, with Speaker of the House of Representatives, Juliet Holness, yesterday charging that the alleged actions of the Clerk to the Houses of Parliament, Valrie Curtis, in failing to adhere to the Speaker’s ruling and applicable procedures “amount to a gross dereliction of duty”.
Speaker Holness indicated in a letter to Curtis that her failure to comply with the Speaker’s ruling has brought the Parliament into disrepute.
When The Gleaner contacted Curtis yesterday for comment on the letter, she declined, saying she had not seen the document.
“I cannot respond to it until I’ve seen it. And when I’ve seen it, I’ll think about it,” she told The Gleaner.
At the same time, The Gleaner has confirmed that the Auditor General’s Department yesterday sent back the two reports to George William Gordon House.
Last Friday, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis told The Gleaner that two reports she sent to Parliament on December 28 and January 29 were returned to her offices by the Speaker.
In a letter to the clerk, the Speaker said she had a responsibility to ensure that there is compliance with established laws, protocols and guidelines, inclusive of rulings in the House of Representatives.
“It is essential that, in your capacity as the chief administrator with responsibility for adherence to procedures, you recognise the authority of the presiding officers and respect the decisions made in the House,” Holness said.
She charged that the rulings of the Speaker are integral to maintaining order and the execution of the administrative procedures in the House.
According to Holness, the clerk’s failure “to comply with the agreed and established procedure has undermined the effectiveness of the institution”.
The Speaker reminded Curtis that she had knowledge of the ruling and the actions to be taken in the matter as the “special audit report of the Financial Services Commission was appropriately addressed under cover letter to the auditor general dated January 8, 2024”.
The Speaker told Curtis that a copy of the letter will be placed on her personal file.
Jeanette Calder, executive director of the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP), commented on the wider implications of the Speaker’s action to send back the reports to the
Auditor General’s Department.
Responding to questions from The Gleaner, Calder said JAMP is concerned that this redirection of the auditor general’s reports to the minister not only falls outside of the provisions in law, but it is very likely to create a negative impact on a critical World Bank governance index.
She explained that in 2021, the World Bank developed and launched an index to measure the legal and operational independence of Supreme Audit Institutions or auditor general’s departments as expressed by the Bank’s website that houses the index.
The JAMP head pointed out that auditor general’s departments“play a pivotal stewardship role in the safeguarding, accountability and efficient use of public resources”.
She said that countries have been assessed with Jamaica being rated as having substantial independence and placed in the range of 8.0-8.5 out of 10.
This represents not only the highest score of all the Caribbean countries, but no other Caribbean state falls in that range.
However, she cautioned that the current development of the Speaker returning reports to the Auditor General’s Department could have a negative impact on the independence of the auditor general, who is a creature of the Constitution.
Calder previously told The Gleaner that the Speaker’s ruling that reports from the auditor general should be sent to the minister with responsibility for the particular public body was in breach of the Financial Administration and Audit (FAA) Act.
She argued that both the previous and current Speaker of the House have relied on Section 30 of the FAA Act, to justify the detention of the auditor general’s reports.
According to Calder, the heading of Section 30 clearly states that it is addressing the ‘Audit of Accounts of Public Body’ by the auditor general.
The auditor general provides the Parliament with other types of reports such as performance reports, compliance reports, IT audit reports and assurance reports.
She argued that the only reports that are relevant to Section 30 are financial reports.
In a Gleaner interview, St Andrew South East Member of Parliament, Julian Robinson, argued that instructions to return two reports to the Auditor General’s Department was done on the basis of a flawed ruling by the Speaker last November.
“We said from the very outset that the opinion from the Attorney General’s Department should be shared so that we could understand the legal basis on which the Speaker has acted. The Speaker has refused to share that opinion with the Parliament,” he said.