The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HOUSE Speaker Halson Moultrie has revealed details about his and Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ apparent frosty relationship.

Mr Moultrie told The Tribune Prime Minister several months ago discontinued regular Thursday morning meetings, which had taken place since the governing Free National Movement took office in 2017.

Further, he said the last time Dr Minnis spoke to him was two to three weeks ago when he sought leave to present his upscale housing plans for young professionals.

“The first time the Prime Minister spoke to me in months was when he called me to ask for leave to present his housing project plan,” he told The Tribune on Friday as he gave his views on a government COVID-19 testing exercise for Members of Parliament and Senators at the Office of the Prime Minister which took place that day.

“That was the new housing project that is being proposed for young professionals. That was about three weeks ago I would say - two-three weeks ago.”

“… Prior to that he had discontinued our regular Thursday morning meeting that we had established from the time the FNM came to power. That was discontinued for about nine months prior to this situation.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister had little to say on the matter. Asked about it during a visit to Eleuthera Friday, Dr Minnis seemed to shrug it off.

“I didn’t even think about it,” he said. “I’m more concerned with getting vaccinations out to the general population. I’m more concerned with saving lives. I’m more concerned with getting our economy back and having our population working.”

The two men appear to have a tense relationship and last week’s fiasco at the House of Assembly gave the impression of a deepening divide between the two.

Mr Moultrie, Nassau Village MP, quit the FNM in February and is now an independent member of Parliament.

At Parliament on Wednesday, the Speaker abruptly adjourned Parliament’s sitting out of frustration that the House had not been sanitised after a senior staffer tested positive for COVID-19, adding that other members had been called out of isolation against his orders.

Mr Moultrie went on to say he made numerous attempts to communicate about the situation with the prime minister, who only offered a one-word response of “noted” and Bamboo Town MP Renward Wells, who is also leader of government business did not respond.

“The staffers of Parliament we assembled in these very chambers waiting for answers. We got one response in one word from the member for Killarney and that was ‘noted’, “ Speaker Moultrie said in Parliament last Wednesday.

By Friday, the government had organised testing for parliamentarians and Senators. House staffers were also invited to the event.

The speaker called it a “purely political exercise”.

He did not participate in the exercise because he viewed it as government attempting to “save face” after an embarrassing situation at Parliament.

“I got some inquiries yesterday from a number of members of Parliament,” he said Friday. “One had sent me a notice that appeared to have come from the government whip requesting all parliamentarians, including Senators, to attend at the Office of the Prime Minister for a testing exercise at 9am this morning (Friday).

“I was unable to respond to the inquiries at the time because I had gotten no notice of the event, but I couldn’t say if it was real or fake but at about 6pm I got a call from Cabinet office to invite me to participate in the exercise and later on at about 8:10pm I got a call from the government whip indicating that as a member of Parliament the Speaker should attend.

“I did not attend this morning because I did not need to get a free test. I was able to go and pay for my own test and I am waiting on the result, but I thought that the exercise in my estimation was all that I was seeking from the very beginning when I contacted the Prime Minister and the Leader of Government Business to have the matter resolved.”

“…I don’t think that the Speaker should participate in an exercise that appeared to be completely political exercise of damage control and saving face after facing an embarrassing situation as the former speaker puts it in Parliament on Wednesday, which needed not to have happened if the executive branch of the government and Prime Minister recognised that the legislative branch is the first arm of the government. It is a separate arm of the government, and it is not to be controlled by the executive branch.

“Once we can arrive at that recognition, we should have no difficulty. I am prepared to function as a professional person in that capacity. As a matter of fact, just two weeks ago the prime minister called the Speaker to request leave to present his housing programme and the Speaker acceded to his request and he was permitted to do so. It is not a matter of personality and egos in my estimation. It’s a matter or procedural correctness and once we perform and we act in consistency with the constitution, with the Powers and Privileges Act and with the roles of Parliament there would be no issues.”

Former House Speaker Dr Kendal Major has called the abrupt adjournment “grossly unfortunate”. Dr Major further expressed that he felt the incident should not have happened in a democratic Parliament.

“The case of COVID is a proper reason to sanitise and shut the House down and protect the staff and the members. That’s appropriate. The process of what happened is what concerns me; the fact that he had to chastise the Prime Minister and the leader of government business in their presence.”

“They just sat there like children being scolded and he went on to close the House down for a day that he chose. It was embarrassing and ought not to have happened.”