UNC backs Govt bill

AFTER just over six hours of proposals and counter-proposals, the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Bill 2019 was passed with amendments in the House of Representatives.

The passage of the bill saw loud cheers and desk banging from Government MPs as, one by one, Opposition MPs voted for the amended bill. The cheers started when Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee led off a sequence of ‘yes’ votes by the Opposition which previously described the bill as dangerous.

The loudest cheers from the government side came when the Opposition Leader gave her assent to the bill. During the committee deliberations, Kamla Persad-Bissessar raised several issues and most of them were agreed to by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

The final vote saw all 34 MPs (Government and Opposition) in the House supporting the bill. As she gave her agreement with a nod, Persad-Bissessar told Al-Rawi, “I say ‘aye’ given the compromises made. It is a much improved bill, thank you AG.”

The vote was a rare moment of consensus by Government and the Opposition.

In the run up to yesterday’s sitting, the two crossed swords over the intention of the legislation. The bill now goes to the Senate for debate. The Senate sits today to debate the Non-Profit Organisations Bill 2019. The House has been adjourned to a date to be fixed.

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