House Speaker Jagdeo Singh has rejected calls for government accountability during a tense parliamentary session, branding transparency demands as a 'tired old story.'
KE-JAN HAYNES Lead Ed-i-tor – News-gath-er-ing House Speak-er Jagdeo Singh dis-missed con-cerns about gov-ern-ment ac-count-abil-i-ty in Par-lia-ment to-day as a “tired old sto-ry” while de-fend-ing Home-land Se-cu-ri-ty Min-is-ter Roger Alexan-der’s re-fusal to an-swer ques-tions tied to the on-go-ing State of Emer-gency and al-leged threats against se-nior law en-force-ment of-fi-cers.. The clash erupt-ed af-ter Mar-vin Gon-za-les chal-lenged the Gov-ern-ment’s de-ci-sion to in-voke Stand-ing Or-der 28(3), which al-lows a min-is-ter to de-cline to an-swer a par-lia-men-tary ques-tion
if, “in his opin-ion the pub-li-ca-tion of the an-swer would be con-trary to the pub-lic in-ter-est.” The same pro-vi-sion al-so ap-pears un-der Stand-ing Or-der 27 gov-ern-ing ur-gent ques-tions.. Gon-za-les had asked Roger Alexan-der two ques-tions: “i.. how many per-sons have been charged un-der the An-ti-Gang Act since the de-c-la-ra-tion of the State of Emer-gency on March 03, 2026; and ii.. whether any-one has been charged in re-la-tion to the al-leged plot to mur-der se-nior law
en-force-ment of-fi-cers in Trinidad and To-ba-go?” Alexan-der de-clined to an-swer.. “I am con-strained to in-voke the pro-vi-sions of Stand-ing Or-der 28 (3).. Of the Stand-ing Or-ders, Mr.. Speak-er, out of def-er-ence for the work of the Trinidad and To-ba-go Po-lice Ser-vice,” he said.. When Gon-za-les at-tempt-ed to ask a sup-ple-men-tal ques-tion, Singh stopped him im-me-di-ate-ly.. “Have a seat.. If the Min-is-ter in-vokes the pub-lic in-ter-est ex-cep-tion in 28(3).. And 28(3) is very clear,” Singh said..
“A Min-is-ter may de-cline to an-swer a ques-tion if, in his opin-ion, the pub-li-ca-tion of the an-swer would be con-trary to the pub-lic in-ter-est.” Singh then chal-lenged Gon-za-les to jus-ti-fy why a sup-ple-men-tal ques-tion should even be al-lowed.. “What pos-si-ble sup-ple-men-tal ques-tion could arise from the blan-ket in-vo-ca-tion of the pub-lic in-ter-est ex-cep-tion?. I need you to jus-ti-fy why a sup-ple-men-tal ques-tion aris-es in those cir-cum-stances.. I don’t wish to be re-galed with the tired
old sto-ry of ac-count-abil-i-ty and all of that, which you’ve tra-versed here be-fore.” The Speak-er’s re-marks prompt-ed Gon-za-les to ar-gue that the ques-tions dealt di-rect-ly with is-sues used by the Gov-ern-ment to jus-ti-fy the State of Emer-gency.. “And for the ben-e-fit of the view-ing pub-lic, Mr.. Speak-er, the cit-i-zens of Trinidad and To-ba-go who are look-ing at these pro-ceed-ings, these ques-tions are filed in or-der to get the ex-ec-u-tive arm of the state to ac-count
for crit-i-cal mat-ters of gov-er-nance in Trinidad and To-ba-go,” Gon-za-les said.. “The ques-tion that was filed for the Min-is-ter was ba-si-cal-ly to ask the Min-is-ter whether per-sons have been charged un-der the An-ti Gang Act since the state of emer-gency and whether any-one has been charged in re-la-tion to the al-leged plot to mur-der se-nior law en-force-ment of-fi-cers in Trinidad and To-ba-go.” “These ques-tions are in the pub-lic in-ter-est, Mr.. Speak-er, be-cause, Mr.. Speak-er, this
coun-try, this coun-try is un-der a state of emer-gency based on these fac-tors and the peo-ple of Trinidad and To-ba-go are de-serv-ing of an-swers to these crit-i-cal things.” Gon-za-les was in-ter-rupt-ed be-fore he could fin-ish.. Singh de-fend-ed the stand-ing or-der, ar-gu-ing that Par-lia-ment it-self de-lib-er-ate-ly cre-at-ed the pub-lic in-ter-est ex-cep-tion.. “The fun-da-men-tal ques-tion the en-tire body col-lec-tive-ly has to an-swer is if it were not in-tend-ed for the pub-lic, the pub-lic in-ter-est ex-cep-tion to ap-ply,
then why in-clude it in these stand-ing or-ders?” Singh asked.. He said the ex-cep-tion ap-pears across sev-er-al cat-e-gories of par-lia-men-tary ques-tion-ing, giv-ing min-is-ters dis-cre-tionary au-thor-i-ty to with-hold an-swers.. “So each tier of ques-tion-ing the par-lia-ment col-lec-tive-ly as a body has giv-en the min-is-ter the resid-ual dis-cre-tionary pow-er to refuse to de-cline the an-swer.” “I don’t want to say refuse be-cause that’s a strong word, but in neu-tral term would be to de-cline the an-swer.” Singh,
who is an at-tor-ney and had no pre-vi-ous par-lia-men-tary ex-pe-ri-ence be-fore be-com-ing Speak-er, then re-ferred to the courts, some-thing he fre-quent-ly does dur-ing de-bates in the House.. “Where the pub-lic in-ter-est ex-cep-tion is in-voked, a judge at com-mon law has the dis-cre-tionary pow-er to say, let me see that ma-te-r-i-al and I will make a de-ci-sion based on the fair-ness of the tri-al,” he said.. “There are no fair-ness con-cerns here.. So, I have no
pow-er to go be-hind the in-vo-ca-tion of the pub-lic in-ter-est.” “All right.. The in-vo-ca-tion of the pub-lic in-ter-est seems to be an ab-solute bar.. The way these stand-ing or-ders are con-struct-ed.”
government accountability, parliamentary session, Standing Order 28, Trinidad politics, Jagdeo Singh, Marvin Gonzales