Lawmakers’ no-show results in committee meeting cancellation
THREE STAFF members from the Office of the Prime Minister who turned up for yesterday’s meeting of the Regulations House Committee at Gordon House were kept waiting for more than half an hour before being told that it was cancelled due to a “lack of quorum”.
The fact is that none of the lawmakers, who are members of the committee chaired by Frank Witter, turned up for the meeting, which was slated to start at noon. At 12:37 p.m., committee clerk Grace-Ann Morrison then summoned the three women who had arrived in time for the scheduled start and advised them of the cancellation.
Among those inconvenienced by the cancellation were the stenographers and orderlies, who were also punctual, the latter having to go about removing the agenda from the desk where it was anticipated that members would have sat.
By then, visitors were already descending on Gordon House for the 2 o’clock sitting of Parliament, where the swearing-in of three new members of parliament was set to take place.
Earlier in the day, during the Development Fund Committee meeting, Chairman Everald Warmington blasted the media over a Gleaner story headlined ‘Lawmakers caught napping’, in which the reporter presented a timeline of the latecomers, which resulted in the meeting getting under way later than its scheduled 1:30 p.m. start time.
Warmington accused local journalists of focusing on minor issues, and questioned their professionalism and competence to hold similar jobs overseas.