I don’t know whether you know, but there is a committee of the Legislature that has been meeting secretly on the Hill, doing some pretty important work. I know because I was called to appear before the committee recently. They wanted to grill me about some of the things that I have been writing about in this column. Sort of. I confess that I am exaggerating some to make a point and, yes, to get your attention.

The committee is the joint select committee that was set up earlier this year to examine, review and report on the Legislature’s management structure and governance and, as readers will know, I have had a fair bit to say on the subject over the years on and off the Hill, and not just in this column.

But I am not exaggerating about ‘secret’ meetings. The first thing I told committee members is that they should not be meeting in private. Submissions and hearings ought to be open to both press and public. It is hard enough to start with to convince voters that the way in which our Legislature works (or doesn’t) is important to them. It is not always easy to connect the dots on how better governance can mean, and invariably does mean, better government. The nuts and bolts of how our Legislature is run (and, no, please, no puns were or are intended) hardly makes for riveting reading, banner headlines or sexy news stories. But shutting out the press and public is hardly the answer. That’s no way to engage people and the irony is that neither does it qualify as modern practice.

I don’t know whether grandstanding was a concern. This is often trotted out as an excuse to shut people out of important meetings. Oddly enough, politicians are the ones who seem to complain about grandstanding the most. Yet they all do it in some form or fashion, whether it be to pose, posture or pontificate, or to even write a column. Some do it poorly and others to great effect. That’s politics.

But that should never prevent us from doing what is right. On the contrary. No one should be deprived of the opportunity to speak and to be heard. The work of the Legislature should therefore be open to all. On the other hand, I am all for modifying what we have to make it work more efficiently and, hopefully, more effectively. I am convinced that through reform we can change the culture and ultimately the way politics is practised around here, on and off the Hill.

The SAGE Commission was on to this, partly. They saw the Budget for the Legislature as too big. They were looking at the wage bill: cut down on members, to thirty, and reduce the size of Cabinet to eight super Ministries. They didn’t stop there though. They also recommended the establishment of at least three working committees of backbenchers, both Government and Opposition, to keep under close and constant review the work of the Ministries. This is just the sort of check and balance, and scrutiny, the Legislature should be providing — and it is exactly what has been missing from around these parts for some time now; far too long, in fact.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), chaired by the Opposition spokesmen for Finance, is supposed to be leading the way. However, a year into the new Government, it has been nothing short of a disappointment. I don’t think there has been one public meeting or hearing yet, and they are meant to keep under review Government finances and with the help and assistance of the Auditor General. Whatever the problem, fix it now. Please.

The beauty is that the work of committees does not have to stop when the House goes down for a recess. Like now. It may surprise you to know that the House has been adjourned, sweethearts, until Friday February the 14th. It’s surprising perhaps, in view of the constant proclamations of the urgency of now: like now not the referendamn but the need for gaming legislation. But, hold on, in fairness, Government members would be among the first to tell you that they can get on with the work when the House is not meeting and they are not sitting up on the Hill all hours of the day.

But that is precisely why we need more active and robust committees of the Legislature. The Executive branch i.e. the Cabinet should be subject at all times to independent oversight and scrutiny. It is where scrutiny is absent that trouble traditionally begins — and, yes, for the work of committees to be effective all hearings should be open to press and public.

This is key to asserting the independence of the Legislature which is the body from which power flows and to which power should be held to account.

Happy New Year everyone. May it be a Better New Year for all of us.

* Share your views on The Royal Gazette website or write jbarritt@ibl.bm.