Host of Speak out BVI, Douglas Wheatley said that Government might be Opposition tomorrow. Photo: VINO/File

Speaking on his programme last evening, September 11, 2012 which was aired on a local radio station, the host said, “You have to remember, the Opposition has [the privilege to ask questions] and the Opposition today, might not be the Opposition tomorrow, the Government might be the Opposition tomorrow and they would have that same privilege to ask those questions.”

Wheatley said there wasn’t anything he could add to Hon. Andrew A. Fahie’s explanation of the importance or significance of the 60 questions asked of the members of Government at the last sitting of the House of Assembly but noted that it was important that there was a balance of power in the House.

The idea of the House of Assembly, Wheatley continued, is that it had within it a means of balancing or counter balancing the Government so that the Government’s use of their majority to have their will always prevail does not necessarily materialize.

“The institution itself is established in such a way is established to provide a balance and a countervailing force to the power of the Government,” Wheatley explained.

As a result the host explained, they cannot purposely mislead the House as that is a very serious offence, so the answers given [in the House] have to be truthful.

Another way in which there was a countervailing force, Wheatley also observed, is with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). “By the Standing Orders themselves,” he said, “the Chairman of the PAC is the Leader of the Opposition.”

Wheatley assured the audience that the PAC can do a lot of things to ensure that all of the power in the house is not on one side, noting that in terms of a democracy “it’s a good thing.”

He also expressed that we must exercise all of those functions in a good manner and we will be fine.

“We must never look at [the questions being asked] as being a waste of time or that there are other things that we can be doing, or should be doing instead of doing this in the House… it’s a very, very important function in the House,” he declared.