Calls for a sweeping overhaul of the way MPs are paid and classified dominated debate in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, as parliamentarians argued that the current Constituency Service Fund was inadequate and questioned whether MPs should still be considered “part-time” workers.
In continuing debate on the Parliamentary Reform Commission’s report in the House of Assembly, St Michael South Central MP Marsha Caddle argued that the Constituency Service Fund, unchanged for several years, no longer meets the needs and demands placed on MPs.
She said: “Last week, one of my young friends from the constituency came to see me. We started talking about some of the kinds of support that he . . . would like in his career, and as we were going through the conversation, he said to me, ‘well, I thought that you always get like $5 000 a month or something to spend on the constituency’. We have to get frank about what is required to serve. The idea of a constituency development fund I support very much.”
The current fund, she added, does not cover routine requests for help with community projects, youth programmes or small-scale infrastructure. Without a reliable pool of resources, MPs are left trying to finance public service out of their own pockets.
Caddle threw her weight behind the idea, floated in previous reform consultations, of an independently managed constituency allocated to each MP. Funds would be disbursed at the MP’s discretion but subject to annual audits and public accounting.
“The notion that a member of Parliament who won the support of a majority of her or his constituency cannot be trusted to execute and give account for and give details of expenditure from a constituency development fund, I reject that entirely. It does not mean that we don’t have to give account for how the funds are spent just like any other fund would need to be audited—we subject ourselves to that. But it is time that we understand that the things that are asked of us cannot be delivered unless they are financed,” she said.
Caddle also stressed that the conversation surrounding funding leads to a larger question of classification and remuneration for MPs, who are classified as part-time workers despite the high level of responsibility they have.
Caddle said: “The question that has to be asked in general is, is being an MP work? Is it a job? This, I believe, should have been a question, a fundamental question put before the Parliamentary Reform Commission—is it work? The fact is, and many people may not realise this, is that it is currently classified as part-time work.”
That definition, she argued, discourages people of modest means from seeking office, particularly given the need to access constant funding to carry out works within constituencies.
“If we are looking to democratise political participation and representation in this country, we have to create a system whereby poor people’s children, people who did not come with any ancestral wealth and lands, can represent people in this country,” Caddle stressed. “So that if I am able to rally the trust and the confidence of a constituency, that should be enough. I should not then have to bring the wealth of previous generations that some may be able to enjoy in order to be on an equal playing field with my colleagues. If we are having a frank discussion, let us have a frank discussion about whether this work that we do, is work.”
Christ Church East MP Wilfred Abrahams backed the proposal, calling for “a significant fund” that actually makes a difference.
“I think it should be a significant fund that allows some discretion on the part of the MP to enact social policies after consultation with members of his own constituency, with interest groups. Let us not be having to come to government begging and begging for some person in the administration to decide, say this is not important.
“The fund is to allow the MP some measure of independence to actually push their own agenda and their own programmes for the betterment of the constituents,” he said. (SB)
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