As the Honourable Speaker of the Anguilla House of Assembly, Mr. Leroy Rogers, continues to bring order and conformity to the Legislative Assembly Rules of Procedure, he has announced a new course of action he will be pursuing.
“We are going to start again proroguing the House, as it should, every twelve months, according to law and then begin a new session,” he told The Anguillian this week.
Mr. Rogers made the point that when the time comes for the Governor to prorogue the House every twelve months, it will have nothing to do with any general election, but only when it is done at the end of the full five-year parliamentary term. In the past, it was usually at the start of each annual session of the House that the programme of the Government of Anguilla was customarily outlined. That has been a missing feature in the House of Assembly for some 21 years.
“It is required by law that the House should be prorogued every twelve months,” the Speaker stressed. “Since 1994 the House has not been prorogued. It means that one session has been lasting for five years, instead of twelve months after which a new session should begin. We want to return to that custom in 1994.”
Meanwhile, the Speaker announced earlier that – after consultation with the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and in accordance with Section 2 (1) of the Legislative Assembly (Procedure) Rules – the House will now be meeting on the last Tuesday of each month at 10.00 am. He explained that “if some extenuating circumstance prohibits such a meeting, it shall be the Tuesday immediately following.” According to him, this decision does not preclude the holding of emergency or special meetings of the House as may be necessary at times.
“I am trying to regularise the meetings so, instead of every two months, the House will meet on the last Tuesday of each month,” Mr. Rogers further explained. “It will make it more convenient for members of the House to know when the meetings will be held, as well as for Government departments to be able to submit their items on time.”
Mr. Rogers is hoping that the new arrangements will proceed smoothly except for Tuesday, October 27, when he will be attending a Regional Speakers Conference in Bermuda for some three days.
Last week, Mr. Rogers, with the cooperation of both sides of the House of Assembly, established three committees: the Public Accounts Committee; a Finance Committee; and a Committee to look after the Rules of the House. This week, he emphasised his desire to see the Public Accounts Committee, in particular, really functioning for the first time. He pointed out that responsibilities of the Committee were not only related to finances of Government ministries and departments, but also to the finances of all Statutory Boards.
The Speaker has also made it known that, under the Legislative Assembly Rules of Procedure, members will be required to declare their commercial interests as a matter of transparency and good governance. He said such declarations were made by members of the Executive Council at the request of the Governor, but are also required to be made in the House of Assembly over which he presides. To this end, he will maintain a Register of Commercial Interests for members of the legislature to be updated at least once a year.
