Letter of the Day | Speaker of the House should apologise

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Gleaner dated April 24 published a news report which stated that Government MPs enunciated glowing tributes to former House Clerk, Valrie Curtis.

This entire issue relates to House Speaker Holness and that unfortunate, unnecessary and unwarranted reprimand letter sent to the former House Clerk Mrs Curtis. There was absolutely no valid and legitimate reason for House Speaker Holness to send that opprobrious letter to Mrs Curtis when, procedurally and managerially, she did nothing wrong. It was also Holness who circulated that letter to all the members of parliament. It is very much hypocritical for Speaker Holness and the Government MPs to be commending Mrs Curtis for her distinguished service to the parliament when the House Speaker failed to publicly and officially apologise to Mrs Curtis. Senior PNP member Phillip Paulwell is absolutely correct when he stated that an apology to Mrs Curtis is important, imperative and needed from the House Speaker.

Quite frankly, I find it distasteful for the Government MPs and Prime Minister Holness to be commending Mrs Curtis when that letter to Curtis has not been withdrawn and House Speaker Holness has not done the correct thing – offer apologies to Valrie Curtis.

House Speaker Juliet Holness is to do the appropriate thing and apologise to Mrs Curtis and also withdraw that letter which was formerly sent to her.

After public pressure, it is commendable that the House Speaker has finally released the Attorney General’s Chambers’ opinion, allowing it to be tabled in the House. Holness clearly did not act according to the legal opinion solicited from the Attorney General’s Chambers on how reports from the Integrity Commission and Auditor General’s Department to Parliament are to be treated, in three instances, the now-tabled documents have revealed. Speaker Holness has to appreciate that the business of the Parliament must be thoroughly conducted at all times in an open, fair, impartial and transparent manner and, therefore, she should never have withheld those auditor general reports and the informed legal opinion from the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Reportedly, many of Parliament’s committees which are chaired by government members of parliament have not been meeting regularly, and the House Speaker needs to act in this regard. The attendance record for some government MPs is poor, and they need to understand the importance of attending Parliament on a regular basis, even when they are cabinet and state ministers. The business of the Parliament is to be taken and treated seriously by the government members of parliament.

ROBERT DALLEY

Montego Bay, St James