Clerk mandated to recommend safety proposals

Security breach at Parliament

With the recent upheavals that took place in Parliament, and based on the concerns expressed by some Members of Parliament (MPs) over security, Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, has now been mandated to come up with some security proposals for the Public Buildings.

Isaacs told Guyana Times that when the Parliamentary Management Committee met on Monday, he was given the mandate to come up with these proposals, with the assistance and collaboration of an expert security team drawn from the different law enforcement agencies. He has until month-end to complete this task.
Asked to provide some details as to what was discussed at that meeting, the Clerk said, “I’ve been asked by the Committee to do a number of things. I don’t think I’m at liberty to disclose what exactly I’m required to do. But I have been given two weeks to come up with a proposal to improve the security of the Public Buildings, and that is including Police entering the Chambers and so on.”
Isaac said he has had two previous meetings with the security team, and they themselves have come up with some proposals in regard to security for the building. “I am told that they have worked out a plan,” he explained, adding that he plans to add some of his proposals to that plan before a final submission is made to the Parliamentary Management Committee at the stipulated time.
During the last sitting of the National Assembly, chaos erupted when Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Members of Parliament (MPs) were accosted by officers of the Guyana Police Force. The incident stemmed from a request by Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, for PPP/C MP Juan Edghill to take his seat after the allotted time given for scrutiny of the budget estimates for the Ministry of the Presidency (MOTP) had expired.
Edghill, whose scrutiny of the MOTP’s estimates was not completed, asked for more time to be given, since according to him four more agencies were added to the MoTP, but the time given was the same as last year’s budget.
Edghill’s decision not to vacate his seat saw Police officers being summoned to the Chambers.
Opposition MPs were physically assaulted by the Police officers as the situation got more intense and chaotic. In tears, Opposition MP and former Minister, Priya Manickchand, revealed to the media that Police officers, in their attempt to remove her colleague, had assaulted her.
There was another moment of absolute chaos in Parliament during the week prior to that incident, during Opposition Leader Bharrat Jadgeo’s 2018 Budget presentation, when a woman invaded the Parliament Chambers dressed in Santa Claus attire and disrupted the proceedings. However, the chaos lasted for less than a minute, as the woman was bodily removed from the chambers and immediately released through the back gate of the Public Buildings. Until now, no one knows who this person was, and how she had managed to pass all the security detail.
The Clerk had indicated that he is unaware of how the woman got there. However, it was reported that Santa had invaded the chambers through the Government’s entrance a mere couple of minutes after most of the Government’s MPs and officers had left the chambers.
Isaacs said the person came into Parliament properly dressed, but changed clothes in the MPs’ washroom and then entered the Chambers. He said such a situation has never previously occurred, and he noted that it was a serious breach of security protocol at Parliament.
Some days later, two plainclothes ranks were identified sitting among journalists at the media desk in the Parliament Chambers. Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine, said Police presence in the Chambers of Parliament ought not to have occurred. He also claimed that the action of the two ranks further aggravated concerns of security breaches at Parliament.
The Parliament was disturbed again by an attendee in the Chamber, who on that same day began singing immediately after the House Speaker announced the lunch break. The woman was permitted to enter the Public Viewing Gallery by security officials of Parliament Office Security.
However, after the Speaker had ended the morning’s session of consideration of the budget estimates, the woman started to sing, “God is watching us”. She was immediately escorted out of the Chambers by security. The echo of her voice could be heard as she continued singing.