Govt replaces John-Bates on oversight committees

JESSE RAMDEO | Se­nior Re­porter

AKASH SAMA­ROO | Lead Ed­i­tor - Pol­i­tics

The Gov­ern­ment has moved to re­place Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates on key par­lia­men­tary over­sight bod­ies fol­low­ing a con­tro­ver­sy over al­leged im­prop­er con­duct tied to a doc­u­ment sub­mis­sion now un­der scruti­ny.

Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the Sen­ate Dar­rell Al­la­har on Tues­day pi­lot­ed a mo­tion to re­move John-Bates from the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) and a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC), re­plac­ing her with Vish­nu Dhan­paul.

The Sen­ate car­ried the mo­tion.

The de­vel­op­ment comes days af­ter a po­lit­i­cal con­tro­ver­sy over a doc­u­ment sub­mit­ted by for­mer Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, which con­tained vis­i­ble “Track Changes” ed­its and in­ter­nal com­ments.

Speak­ing out­side Par­lia­ment to­day, John-Bates said:

"I think my re­moval from the PAAC, I re­spect that de­ci­sion. I think it would al­low the work of the PAAC, im­por­tant work, to con­tin­ue with­out it be­ing over­shad­owed by any is­sue."

Asked about her fu­ture as a sen­a­tor, she said:

"I note what the Com­mit­tee has said. I know that a re­port has been laid in Par­lia­ment, and I think that, you know, any facts that need to be es­tab­lished should be es­tab­lished through any ap­pro­pri­ate par­lia­men­tary process. And of course, it's in the hands of my po­lit­i­cal leader and I would re­spect any de­ci­sion that she makes."

A copy of the doc­u­ment ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia showed that both Sen­a­tor John-Bates and Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi were list­ed as hav­ing made re­vi­sions.

While Al-Rawi is not a mem­ber of the PAAC, the dis­clo­sure has raised ques­tions about whether his in­volve­ment al­so could be con­sid­ered im­prop­er con­duct.