SPEAKER of the National Assembly, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, has observed that apart from the government, the National Assembly is the most important facilitator and promoter of business activities.

The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association Ltd (GMSA) hosted a business luncheon last Friday, as part of its private sector awareness programme at Regency Suites Hotel in Hadfield Street, Georgetown.

During his presentation entitled ‘The National Assembly as a Facilitator and Promoter of Investment and Business Activities in Guyana’, he stated that the Constitution of Guyana defines the functions of the National Assembly as passing (making) laws for the ‘peace, order and good governance of Guyana’.

He noted that for the first time in the history of Guyana, in 2001, a marginal note was enshrined in the Constitution with the word ‘private enterprise’.

The section of which provides that ‘privately owned enterprises’ shall be facilitated in accordance with certain aims and objectives, Ramkarran informed the gathering.

“Thus facilitating private enterprise is an aspect of good governance and that is clearly within the purview of the functions of the National Assembly,” Ramkarran noted.

He outlined that since 2000, the National Assembly has enacted the following pieces of legislation which have a direct impact on business activities: Money Laundering Prevention Act; Income Tax Amendment Act; Business Names (Registration) (Amendment) Act; Guyana Tourism Authority Act; Procurement Act; Fiscal Enactments (Amendment) Act; Investment Act; Small Business Act; Value Added Tax (VAT) Act; Excise Tax Act; Competition and Fair Trading Act; Income Tax (Amendment) (No 2) Act; and Fiscal Enactment (Amendment) Act among several others.

“This body of legislation taken together and sometimes singly, such as the VAT Act has transformed the business landscape and has permanently and substantially altered the way business is transacted in Guyana,” he noted.

“In this sense, the National Assembly is the most important facilitator and promoter of business activities apart from the Government of Guyana,” he attested.

However, the Speaker of the National Assembly noted that there are many more years of legal reform to modernise the business sector.

“So the opportunity must now be taken to upgrade your capacity to influence the legislature,” he encouraged.

These reforms might include: the Roman-Dutch Mortgage; the Sale of Goods; the Pledge of Goods Act; the Bills of Sale Act; and the Bills of Exchange Act, he stated. “There has never been any contract legislation in Guyana of any kind. There are dozens of legislations on various aspects of contract law to bring it up to date with modern practices…so there is much that is coming for the business community,” he alluded.

“In the past, a national consensus did not exist as to the responsibility of the National Assembly to certain stakeholders. In fact apart from its defined functions, some stakeholders such as private enterprise were not recognised in the Constitution,” the Speaker of the National Assembly recalled.

“Nowadays, we have a provision which provides that the government must consult with all stakeholders…we have a specific provision that the Government must consult with the private enterprise,” he noted.

“The recognition of these additional stakeholders in the Constitution, private enterprise being one together with Article 13, has created additional responsibilities for the National Assembly,” he noted.

He noted that Article 13 provides for the participation of citizens and their organisations in the management and decision making processes of the State, with particular emphasis on those areas of decision making that directly affects their well being.

“This provision was recommended by the Constitution Reform Commission in 2000 and was enacted in 2001,” the Speaker of the National Assembly recalled.

“That was a time of great expectations. Many believed that the institutions would be created or strengthened to give effect to Article 13 and other similar provisions. Prior to this time, the National Assembly had not been equipped with the instruments and resources to deliver on the promise of the reforms,” Ramkarran stated.

“The National Assembly has now been transformed into an institution with a capacity - modest still to discharge some of the responsibilities which it had anyway and those which the reform of 2001 added,” he declared.

“The Guyana National Assembly is a late entrant to the era of parliamentary reform and modernisation. The first substantive amendment since Independence to the Standing Order was made in 1994 to provide for Standing Committees,” he recalled.

“The hope at that time was that a Standing Committee system similar to that existing now, would be created to monitor the implementation and development of government policy,” Ramkarran added.

An unsuccessful effort was made by the then government to establish, as a start, a Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, he stated.

“This fell trough mainly because of the political context existing at that time,” Ramkarran stated.

“The next effort was made in 2000 when the Constitution Reform Commission proposed the establishment of four Sectoral Committees, an Appointments Committee and a Constitution Review Committee,” he recollected.

“The political parties and the National Assembly unanimously adopted most of the proposals for reform including those for reform to the National Assembly which were subsequently implemented,” he noted.

As a result, four Sectoral Committees were established with nine members each, he stated.

“The Government and Opposition share the positions of Chair and Deputy Chair and these rotate annually. One of these Committees is responsible for Economic Services and directly bears upon the concerns of the business community,” the Speaker of the House emphasised.

Ramkarran said in 2005, another series of reforms were embarked upon, following studies and recommendations made by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and the World Bank.

“Some of these recommendations were funded by a loan to the Government of Guyana by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Guyana which itself has unhesitatingly funded much refurbishment and restoration of the facilities,” he posited.

He said these reforms are continuing with a Special Select Committee considering the implementation of proposals for budgetary and structural autonomy which has already been approved by a resolution of the National Assembly.

Management plan
He said at the present time, a Management Plan prepared by a Kenyan expert and funded by the CPA and partly IDB under the Fiscal and Financial Management Programme, is awaiting consideration pending the report of the Special Select Committee.

“Once the Management Plan is implemented, the way will be open for Parliament to benefit from a programme, the Guyana Country Threshold Project, the implementing partner of the USAID, under the Millennium Challenge Account Programme,” he alluded.

He said one of the recommendations made by Commonwealth Parliamentary Adviser, Sir Michael Davies, in his report on behalf of the CPA is the development of a programme by the National Assembly to engage stakeholders in order to familiarise them with its work.

“This activity is of vital importance for the nation as a whole. The decisions of the National Assembly affect the lives of all Guyanese, sometimes in fundamental ways and deeply affect in important ways, the activities of some sections of our community more than others – one such section is the business community,” he stressed.