HOA’s poor & ineffective operations peeve members!
It was revealed also that internally on the administrative side of the Operations the House of Assembly (HOA) it is even worse.
This information was contained in the 2014 Report on the Deliberations of the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) while they examined the Draft 2014 Budget Estimates.
At the time Clerk of the HOA Mrs. Phyllis Evans was making her presentation before the SFC. It was Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) among others who raised the issue of the House Library not being operational. Hon Fahie said that conducting research in the HOA was extremely difficult.
The former Minister for Education and Culture told the SFC that he received an electronic copy of the Hansard report for 2013, but had not received one for 2012. The Member for the First District contended that if the reports were being paid for then they should be received on time.
Serious issues with authentic answers to questions
There have also been serious concerns raised about what the public sees in answers to questions in the HOA and then what members are given.
The Member for the First District Fahie noted that when questions were asked in the House and when they were not provided on hard copy or in real time and the Hansard reports are not submitted on time it poses a problem.
Hon Fahie said what was more frightening to learn at the SFC is that there were sittings where he had not received hard copies of the answers. Additionally, additionally there were Sittings where the answers to the questions on the hard copy when provided were not the same as the taped version.
Hon. Fahie lashed out staying that the lack of a Library to conduct research, the delays in receiving the CDs, DVDs or Hansard on time and getting information in real time put him in an awkward position as Members of the HOA should be speaking from information that was requested.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Natural Resources and Labour Dr. the Honourable Kedrick D. Pickering (R7) told the 2014 SFC that it was important for members to receive reports from previous years, as they were critical references that should be used to form part of the discussions.
In agreeing with Hon. Fahie on the issue of different answers from spoken word to hard copies Dr. Pickering noted that the didactic side of the Questions and Answers sessions was the formal response to the answers and it was when there were follow-ups that the need for the verbatim reports would be extremely important.
Deputy Premier lashes out at HOA inefficiency
The veteran Legislator who represents the people of the 7th District on Tortola warned the HOA Administrators that it was less than proper not to receive the verbatim reports and, if the verbatim reports were to be edited, it would pose serious problems. The Minister for Natural Resources and Labour noted that receiving the verbatim reports had been a long-standing issue.
In her response Chairwoman of the SFC and Speaker of the HOA Honourable Ingrid A. Moses blamed it all on lack of human resources. However, she promised members that they would see a significant improvement in getting the reports out to them now that they had additional human resources.
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