Take Up Your Constitution And Read

IN the post –election phase, the social media we refer to as Facebook, has provided a fascinating insight into the thought patterns of the Saint Lucian citizenry. I have observed the agony of defeat, the thrill of victory, the acrimony of political ethnicity and above all the knowledge-deficit that exists within our society.

The knowledge – deficit within the society of the provisions of the constitution is what struck me the most. I have concluded that the Constitutional Reform Report has no legitimacy, as it is clear to me that almost 99 % of our population has never read the Constitution. How could you talk about reform when the original document is not known? Unfortunately, that 99% includes a large percentage of our politicians and lawyers.

I will readily admit that up to two months ago, I would have had to be placed within the 99 % category. My sojourn into the Constitution started sometime in early May when I decided to begin reading up on what the Constitution said about holding an election. I read the Elections Act also and understood that while Section 55 of the Constitution provides for the Prime Minister to advise the Governor General on the date for dissolution of the House, Clause 36 of the Election Act places sole responsibility for the timelines for holding an election upon the Governor General.

While there may be a convention of the Prime Minister announcing the date of a General Election, that date selection is solely in the domain of the Governor General, who is the only one empowered to issue the writs for nomination and the date the poll is taken within the minimum of 14 days and the maximum of 21 days after the issuance of the first writ. The clock starts on the issuance of the writ for nomination and not on the date of the announcement.!

The configuration of Ministers also had me searching the Constitution further. My reading led me to understand the meaning of the following terms:
1. Department of Government
2. Ministry
3. Portfolio
4. Parliamentary Secretary
5. Minister
6. Minister without Portfolio
There are two relevant sections within the Constitution to observe. Section 62 and Section 69 say the following:

62. ALLOCATION OF PORTFOLIOS TO
MINISTERS
The Governor General, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, may, by directions in writing, assign to the Prime Minister or any other Minister responsibility for any business of the Government, including the administration of any department of government:

Provided that responsibility for finance shall be assigned to a Minister who is a member of the House.

69. PERMANENT SECRETARIES
Where any Minister has been charged with responsibility for any department of government, he or she shall exercise general direction and control over that department; and, subject to such direction and control, every department of government shall be under the supervision of a public officer whose office is referred to in this Constitution as the office of a permanent secretary:

Provided that 2 or more government departments may be placed under the supervision of one permanent secretary.

So according to the Constitution there can be Ministers who can be charged with the responsibility of a department/s of government and there are Ministers who can be given responsibility but not be in charge of a government department. Let us call the first one a Minister with Portfolio, and the second one a Minister without Portfolio.

Let us define a portfolio as a collection of departments of government. So for example Hon. Stephenson King has a portfolio comprising the Department of Infrastructure and Ports, the department of Labour and the Department of Energy, which when combined is called the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ports, Energy and Labour. He would have responsibility for the direction and control of all those Departments of government and he will have a Permanent Secretary to supervise those departments.

However Hon. Jimmy Henry has no portfolio and thus has no responsibility for direction of control of any department of government, he thus becomes a Minister without Portfolio. In my view also Hon. Dominic Fedee is also a Minister without Portfolio as there is no department of tourism and no department of information and broadcasting. The business of government which relates to tourism, Information and b broadcasting are all now under the Department of Office of Prime Minister.

Similarly, all the functions of Commerce, Investment, Enterprise Development, Industry and Consumer Affairs are now all under the Department of Office of Prime Minister. Hon. Bradley Felix also is a Minister without Portfolio and has no responsibility for direction and control of any Department of Government.

There is no longer a department of tourism or a department of commerce or a Ministry of Tourism or a Ministry of Commerce. These no longer exist, and we now only have a Department of Office of Prime Minister where all these components of the business of government reside. I am also of the view that Statutory Instruments can only be signed by the Minister responsible for direction and control of the relevant department of government. Take up your constitution and read it.