The Tribune

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By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FOLLOWING confirmation that a House of Assembly staffer tested positive for COVID-19, Speaker Halson Moultrie revealed that his protocol recommendations were ignored by the government.

In the House of Assembly on Wednesday morning, Speaker Moultrie hit out at the government for failing to lead by example, saying the Parliament, even as he spoke, was in breach of its own protocols.

He told members that since Tuesday when the House of Assembly clerk’s condition was made known, the chamber had not been sanitized. He said another staffer, who is the clerk’s deputy, had been made to come out of quarantine despite his desire to have staffers isolate themselves.

When his concerns were made known to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis on Tuesday afternoon, Speaker Moultrie said he received a one-word response, which was “noted”.

He said he received no response from the leader of government business in the House, Renward Wells.

“This day is indeed a sad day for me,” Speaker Moultrie said as he began his remarks. “Firstly, because the closest person in this Parliament to me as speaker is not well today and we pray for his speedy recovery from this COVID-19 coronavirus.

“Today causes me to reflect on the circumstances that lead us here to this point today in that one year ago approximately we began the protocols based on the proclamation of emergency with respect to this COVID pandemic.

“Whenever we accept leadership positions the first thing we must do and recognise is that we should lead by example and so if we put protocols in place, we should be prepared to live by the established protocols because if we fail to do so the general public who we represent cannot be expected to abide by those protocols.”

He continued: “Now if we look around this assembly today, we would note that we are in breach of our own protocols. We established a certain physical distancing within this Parliament.

“The speaker announced those protocols and some authority who believes that they have jurisdiction over the speaker’s jurisdiction in this legislative branch has caused numerous chairs to be added to this assembly in breach of the physical distancing protocols, yet we expect the public to abide by such protocols.

“In September last year the speaker suggested to this Parliament that we should pass a resolution like many other Parliaments in this Commonwealth Parliamentary Association has done to this point and time so that this Parliament can meet in a hybrid form either face to face or virtually but then again the speaker recommendation was either ignored or refused.”

Citing Rule 88 (9), Speaker Moultrie adjourned Parliament to May 3 at 10am.