Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com

Members of the boards of State authorities and enterprises should not be subjected to terms limits.

If so, then they should be extended to all high ranking public officials, including the Prime Minister.

This was was stated by Prime Minister Patrick Manning two weeks ago in the Parliament in response to Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal’s argument that term limits should be applied to those serving on the boards of all State authorities and enterprises.

Being debated was a bill that seeks to bring an end to the term limits for the board directors of the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA) which had been included in the original legislation that established the authority.

Moonilal argued that the term limits should not be removed and questioned why they were not applied to other high offices in the Public Service.

’There are those who say that you should restrict the term…in respect of the Civil Aviation Authority, there is a term restriction. I am not sure when that came into power, when that was implemented in the law and which government was in office at the time, I am not quite sure that I remember it. What I do know is that if we agree, Mr Speaker, that there should be a restriction on the term of members of the Civil Aviation Authority; then we have no argument whatsoever against extending that principle to every other authority in the country, every other State enterprise and eventually, Mr Speaker, eventually Mr Speaker, those who hold the highest positions in the land including the Prime Minister and or the President,’ Manning said.

’Mr Speaker, countries of our size and countries at our stage of development do not possess the range of resources and in the quantity that are required to be able to take positions like those which are luxuries that can only be visited on some developed countries,’ Manning added.

The President, who is elected into office by the Electoral College which is comprised of all members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, already has a term limit of five years under the existing Constitution.

There is no term limit set for the Prime Minister who first serves for a five-year period after the first General Election his party wins but can continue to stay in office as long as that party continues to be victorious at the polls under the existing Constitution, except for specific circumstance such as having to give up being an MP.

Manning’s remarks come at a time when a round table of scholars operating out of his office is preparing a working document for the final draft of a new constitution that proposes the establishment of an executive president which is essentially a merger of the existing offices of the President and the Prime Minister.

Manning made no mention of the proposed executive presidency but made reference to the constitutional reform exercise as he explained why his administration is satisfied that under the existing laws, this country is too small to have term limits for the holders of high public office such as the board members of the TTCAA.

’We argue things in a certain way. In fairness some of these things sound alright but in practice they don’t,’ Manning said. (Trinidad Express)