New Democrat (Monrovia)
19 May 2011
Legislators’ claims that laws and Agreements the Legislature passed have been altered in recent time have sparked a heated debate of denials and confessions, with House Speaker Alex Tyler asking his colleagues why they are making the butchering claims now.
Meanwhile, efforts to get copies of laws that have sparked the butchering controversy failed Wednesday when a legislative staffer in charge told this paper that the Speaker had sent for all copies.
The request was to determine the differences, if any, between the legislature’s version and the ones allegedly disfigured by the Executive.
House Engrossing Clerk, Lafayette B. Gould, said that there was no need to wait for copies of the controversial laws because he did not know how long the Speaker would keep them.
Regarding the ATM Terminal Agreement, which some senators claim has been altered, Mr. Gould said he took the Legislature’s version to the President on 14 September 2010 at 4:35 PM. But he said since then, he has not received the Agreement printed in handbills to show that it is now legal.
But he said one possible reason for the delay is that the ATM Agreement is bulky, consisting of about 175 pages, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sometimes does not have paper to print nor other logistics to facilitate their work.
The clerk said he does not have the original copy of the ATM Agreement. He said if within 21 days the President does not sign an Agreement or law the Legislature has passed, it becomes law. But the contents of the current ATM Agreement are unknown because it has not been printed and sent back to the Legislature.
Speaking during a radio interview Wednesday, Speaker Tyler rejected claims that certain laws sent to the President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, have been altered. To the contrary, he said, the Legislature’s versions of these laws remain valid.
But Sinoe County Senator Mobutu Nyepan rejected the Speaker’s claim and cited the Agreement on the ATM Terminal Company, now responsible for the Free Port of Monrovia, as an example of a disfigured law. He said the Agreement as passed differs from that which the company is now operating under.
Moreover, he said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has failed to present the printed copy of the Agreement to the Legislature, as the law requires.
Another legislator, Rep. Kai Farley of Grand Gedeh County, said the alteration of the Legislature’s passed laws has been a long-standing practice, citing Speaker Tyler as a witness. “…Even Speaker Tyler can attest to what I am saying,” Farley said Wednesday when he called the Truth Breakfast Show, which had the Speaker as its guest.
Rep. Bhofal Chambers (UP, Maryland County), who blew the whistle on the altered laws, earlier this week rejected the Speaker’s claim that changes in the Joint Resolution on the referendum went through the normal process. As co-chair of the committee responsible for the Joint Resolution, he said he was present in all the meetings relating to it. He said at no time were changes that later surfaced in the Executive’s final form discussed.
Chambers, in an interview with this paper Tuesday, cited the Legislature’s Joint Resolution on the Referendum, in which voters are to vote on several constitutional amendments. He said according to the Joint Resolution, voters are to choose lifetime service for Supreme Court Chief Justice and Associate Justices. But he said the version on which voters are to vote has been altered, specifying an age limit of 75. He said he has no idea who changed it because he was co-chair of the Committee that drafted the proposition. He is now under pressure, according to reliable sources, to resign as Chair of the Unity Party’s Legislative Caucus.
Lofa County Senator Sumo Kupee also called a radio talk show on the subject to register his disapproval of what he said was the practice of altering laws the Legislature has passed.
Another instance frequently mentioned is the Act creating the Anti-Corruption Commission. In its original form, the Act stipulated that the President ‘shall’ consult civil society in appointing the Commission’s chair. In its final form, the version tempered with by the Executive, it stipulates that the President ‘may’ consult, making consultation optional.
Contacted, both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Executive Mansion denied any role in the altering of laws.
Since it is now obvious to the legislators that the Executive usually changes laws passed by them, a situation that displeases them, what many wish to know is whether the lawmakers will do anything about it, or whether they will let the Executive continuously have its way.
AllAfrica – All the Time
Taken from:
War of Words Rages Over ‘Altered’ Laws