Cabinet wrong to give housing to Senate VP

Senate vice president Nigel de Freitas.  -
Senate vice president Nigel de Freitas. -

CABINET did not follow the proper procedure and was wrong to allocate a unit at the Housing Development Corporation’s (HDC) Victoria Keyes housing development in Diego Martin to Senate vice president Nigel De Freitas in 2017.

This was the ruling of Justice Kevin Ramcharan in a statutory interpretation application filed by opposition activist Devant Maharaj.

Maharaj’s claim dealt with the proper procedure in bestowing benefits on members of Parliament.

The judge was asked to determine if changes to the terms and conditions of service for members of Parliament can only be made through Parliament approving a report produced by the Salaries Review Commission.

He also had to consider if the Cabinet had any power or authority to confer a benefit on members of Parliament where the benefit was not recommended in the approved 98th SRC report or included by parliamentary amendment.

And, as part of the claim, Maharaj wanted to know if Cabinet was permitted to allocate a unit at Victoria Keyes to De Freitas.

Ramcharan said there was nothing in sections 140 or 141 of the Constitution which provided that the only means by which changes to the terms and conditions of MPs can be made is through Parliament approving the SRC’sreport.

He also said Cabinet did have the power to confer a benefit on MPs where the benefit was not recommended in the SRC’s report or included by Parliamentary approval,

Such powers, he said, were circumscribed and had to follow a particular procedure before any deviation can be made.

He also added that Parliament, through its accounting officer, could have requested and provided use of the unit but it had to be done through the Parliament and not the Cabinet.

De Freitas, a resident of Tobago, was appointed to the Senate in 2015.

The SRC’s 98th report provided for office holders who live in Tobago and are required to work in Trinidad as it recognised the inconvenience and disruption to their normal routine and the costs associated with travelling to Trinidad.

The SRC recommended amendments to the subsistence allowance for certain office holders, and be extended to the offices of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives who are normally resident in Tobago but required to live in Trinidad to carry out their responsibilities.

The Tobago allowance for the President of the Senate is $6,330 and the housing allowance is $12,360.

The judge said it had to be noted that the vice-president of the Senate receives neither the Tobago allowance nor a housing allowance but was entitled to the cost of accommodation and meals, as necessary, to be met by the State.

Cabinet made the proposal to provide De Freitas with housing accommodation to enable him to executive his responsibilities with minimal disruption.

A proposal sent to the SRC, preceding its 98th report, recommended a housing allowance of $8,000 for senators and $12,000 for Tobago senators or fully furnished accommodation to be provided by the State.

“It is clear the SRC did not find favour with this recommendation,” the judge pointed out,

The unit allocated to De Freitas was one of ten retained by the government for State use when the project was opened. Before that, he stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain.

Ramcharan said there was no legislation which speaks to the setting of the salary of members of Parliament, including the Senate vice-president and the Executive was the arm of the State vested with the power to deal with the State’s finances in general.

“It would, therefore, seem that in relation to questions of remuneration not covered by legislation, it is the Executive which has this responsibility,’ he said.

However, he added, if Cabinet were free to reject or add to the recommendations of the SRC as they pleased, it would render the body superfluous and almost redundant.

He added, “A person who is remunerated at a higher level that what was recommended by the SRC, there is also a danger that the office holder may feel beholden to the Cabinet or may determine matters or discharge their duties in such a way as to ingratiate themselves to Cabinet.”

Ramcharan said even if Cabinet was the body with the final approval on the salaries of officers under the SRC’s remit, it cannot on its own confer or remove benefits.

He said any review of terms and conditions must begin with a request from the president that the terms be reviewed. This, he said, could be a general review or of just one or more officers. Once the report is sent to the President, then to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet can then consider it and determine if to accept it or not. It must then lay the report in Parliament so that it is made public.

“If the intention of the laying of the report in Parliament is to publish to the public at large, it would be defeating the purpose if Cabinet could derogate from these recommendations without also publishing any changes made,’ he said.

In allocating a unit to De Freitas, the judge said while Cabinet could do so, in this case, it did not follow the proper procedure and “therefore was wrong in doing so.”

Maharaj was represented by Anand Ramlogan,SC, Gerald Ramdeen, Douglas Bayley and Alvin Pariagsingh while Douglas Mendes,SC, Michael Quamina, Amrita Ramsook.

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