John-Bates offers resignation to PNM leader

AKASH SAMA­ROO

Lead Ed­i­tor – Pol­i­tics

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates has of­fered her res­ig­na­tion to the Sen­ate, apol­o­gis­ing for the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing her role on a key par­lia­men­tary over­sight com­mit­tee.

How­ev­er, there has been no con­fir­ma­tion as yet from Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les on whether the res­ig­na­tion has been ap­proved.

John-Bates made the an­nounce­ment in a per­son­al state­ment mo­ments be­fore the Up­per House be­gan de­bate on a re­port from the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC), which rec­om­mend­ed that her con­duct be re­ferred to the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges for a for­mal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a po­ten­tial breach of par­lia­men­tary du­ty.

The con­tro­ver­sy cen­tres on al­le­ga­tions that John-Bates, along with Faris Al-Rawi, com­pro­mised the neu­tral­i­ty of the PAAC by ghost-edit­ing a wit­ness state­ment for for­mer min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh. The is­sue came to light af­ter the doc­u­ment was sub­mit­ted with vis­i­ble “track changes,” prompt­ing her re­moval from the com­mit­tee.

In her state­ment, John-Bates ac­knowl­edged that the mat­ter had trig­gered weeks of “pub­lic com­men­tary, crit­i­cism and spec­u­la­tion,” but main­tained that she had act­ed in good faith.

“From the mo­ment I was sworn in as a sen­a­tor, I have sought to dis­charge my du­ties with in­tegri­ty, in good faith and in the pub­lic in­ter­est,” she said.

She ad­mit­ted that her in­volve­ment had con­tributed to pub­lic con­cern and risked dis­tract­ing from Par­lia­ment’s work, of­fer­ing what she de­scribed as an un­equiv­o­cal apol­o­gy to cit­i­zens and fel­low sen­a­tors.

“I recog­nise that my in­volve­ment in this mat­ter has giv­en rise to pub­lic con­cern and has con­tributed to a lev­el of con­tro­ver­sy that risks dis­tract­ing from the im­por­tant work of this Ho­n­ourable Par­lia­ment,” she said.

How­ev­er, John-Bates re­ject­ed any sug­ges­tion of wrong­do­ing, deny­ing that she con­spired to com­mit con­tempt of Par­lia­ment.

“It was not my in­ten­tion to ob­struct or im­pede the work of the Com­mit­tee or the Par­lia­ment, and I de­ny that I con­spired to com­mit con­tempt of Par­lia­ment,” she stat­ed.

De­spite her de­nial, the Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor said she had tak­en the de­ci­sion to step aside in the in­ter­est of pre­serv­ing the in­tegri­ty of Par­lia­ment.

“I here­by in­form the Sen­ate and the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty that I have of­fered my res­ig­na­tion,” she said.