Year in Review – Parliament | A House on fire ... arson, controversy and republic push
Published:Tuesday | January 14, 2025 | 12:07 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
The 2024 calendar year served up two dramatic firsts in the country’s Parliament, while on the legislative front, a bill to replace King Charles with a ceremonial Jamaican president as head of state was tabled in December.
Onlookers were left stunned on March 19, when lawmakers of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, stormed out of Parliament bringing to a screeching halt Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s Budget Debate presentation.
It was the first time in independent Jamaica that a Budget Debate presentation was cut short as a result of a walkout by the governing party, leaving the Parliament without a quorum.
Flanked by opposition members of parliament, Golding took his remaining speech to the streets outside Headquarters House, the former seat of Jamaica’s legislature. There, he addressed a gathering, including party faithful who had turned up at Gordon House to support their leader.
Earlier, a seemingly incensed Holness gathered his documents and left Gordon House even as Golding raised concern about St Andrew East Rural Member of Parliament Juliet Holness presiding as Speaker while being the spouse of the head of Government. According to the opposition leader, this did not sit well with the tradition that the Speaker must act independently of the Government of the day.
PM Holness was heard in sotto voce remarks dismissing Golding’s comments as “low and desperate”.
In another unprecedented event that occurred in March, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis returned two reports she had sent to Parliament after they were sent back by Speaker Holness. These reports – special audits of the Financial Services Commission and Tax Administration Jamaica – had been withheld for more than two months by the Speaker, who initially claimed adherence to a ruling she previously made in relation to the tabling of the reports.
However, she later tabled the reports following unrelenting calls to do so from members of civil society and the parliamentary Opposition.
Public reprimand
On March 25, it was revealed that Speaker Holness had issued a public reprimand to Clerk to the Houses of Parliament, Valrie Curtis, accusing her of gross dereliction of duty, claiming that she failed to adhere to the Speaker’s ruling and applicable procedures.
But the former clerk, who had served the legislature for nearly 30 years, hit back, saying she carried out her duties diligently and complied with the ruling of the Speaker in how reports from the Auditor General’s Department should be handled.
Curtis then said she would accept nothing less than the Speaker’s public withdrawal of the March 22 letter.
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) also called for an apology and withdrawal of the letter from Speaker Holness to the now-retired clerk.
The JCTU argued that the Speaker’s public condemnation of the former clerk “not only tarnishes Ms Curtis’ distinguished career but also sends a chilling signal to other public servants”. Civil society groups and the parliamentary opposition also condemned the Speaker’s action.
The Speaker has neither withdrawn the letter nor apologised.
Also in March, the country spent much time debating the findings of an auditor general’s report which revealed that Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) spent $371.8 million to lease two properties over a three-year period while the buildings remained unoccupied.
In June, security experts called for an internal review of the measures of protection in place at Gordon House – the seat of the country’s legislature – following an arson attack on the building.
CCTV footage reviewed shortly after showed a lone individual throwing a plastic bottle containing an accelerant at the building, igniting it and then fleeing on foot. The fire extinguished naturally, resulting in minimal damage, estimated around $80,000.
The Integrity Commission’s director of corruption prosecution referred one current and two former parliamentarians for prosecution last year for breaching the Integrity Commission Act.
Mikael Phillips, an opposition lawmaker, committed an offence when he failed, without reasonable cause, to submit his statutory declaration in accordance with the IC law.
Former Westmoreland Central Member of Parliament Dwyane Vaz was also charged by the IC. Vaz was requested to provide further information by the IC after filing his 2019 statutory declaration, contravening Section 43(1)(b) of the Integrity Commission Act. The former People’s National Party lawmaker was given an opportunity to discharge liability by paying the fixed penalty and submitting the requested information. He, however, failed to pay the penalty.
At the same time, former government lawmaker and junior minister for foreign affairs Leslie Campbell was found guilty in December for failing to comply with repeated requests from the IC for additional information about his statutory declaration over a number of years.
Constitutional reform
On the legislative front, a bill to reform the Constitution to establish a Jamaican republic was tabled in Parliament in December. The legislation is intended to replace the British monarch – currently King Charles – with a ceremonial president as head of state in Jamaica.
The bill also proposes to entrench the Electoral Commission of Jamaica in the Constitution, incorporate national symbols and emblems, clarify Jamaican citizenship criteria, and strengthen constitutional amendment procedures.
However, the Government’s move to pass this bill in its current form may hit a snag as the parliamentary Opposition has repeatedly argued that their support for moving away from the British monarchy would only come with a simultaneous departure from the London-based Privy Council to the Caribbean Court of Justice as the island’s final appellate court.
For the bill to be passed, it has to receive support from a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. While it would succeed in the Lower House with a huge government majority, it could fail in the Upper House unless at least one member of the Opposition votes with the Government side.
In 2024, the Parliament passed 14 pieces of legislation.
THREE BY-ELECTIONS
Former government senator Matthew Samuda resigned from the Upper House and was elected to the Lower House as the new member of Parliament for St Ann North Eastern.
On October 8, Samuda was sworn in following his by-election win on September 30. Voter turnout in the by-election was low at 11.6 per cent. The PNP did not contest that seat.
The seat became vacant following the resignation of Marsha Smith.
Another new member of parliament entered Gordon House late last year when Duane Smith won a by-election in St Andrew North Western, which was vacated by former Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke.
Clarke resigned to take up a position as deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund.
The Lower House saw the return of Marisa Dalrymple Philibert a little more than 14 months after resigning as Speaker in the wake of a damning report from the Integrity Commission alleging breaches of anti-corruption laws.
Both Dalrymple Philibert and Smith were successful in the November 22 parliamentary by-elections which were not contested by the PNP.
In November, businessman Don Wehby resigned from the Senate, citing health-related matters.
Bills passed in 2024
1. An Act to Amend the Political Ombudsman (Interim) and to provide for connected matters.
2. An Act to Apply a Sum out of the Consolidated Fund to the Service of the year ending on the 31st day of March 2025 and to appropriate the sums granted in this session of Parliament.
3. An Act to Amend the Appropriation Act, 2024, to exclude all expenditure classified as statutory expenditure, and for connected matters.
4. An Act to Amend the Financial Administration and Audit Act, 2024
5. An Act to Amend Section 61 of the Constitution of Jamaica to Provide for new words of enactment
6. An Act to Amend the Representation of the People Act
7. An Act to Amend the Road Traffic (Reprieve and Nullification of Prescribed Notice) Act
8. An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act
9. An Act to Amend the Judicature (Rules of Court) Act
10. An Act to Amend the Segregated Accounts Companies Act
11. An Act to Amend the Trade Act, 2024
12. An Act to Amend the Financial Services Commission Act, 2024
13. An Act to Amend the Maintenance Act and to provide for connected matters