PM Kamla says ministers won't make official visits abroad before taking parliamentary oath

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is not attending a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Barbados Wednesday because she believes members of her government should not travel abroad on official duties until they have taken their parliamentary oath.

American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending the talks.

The Prime Minister told the Trinidad Express she considers such travel inappropriate and an insult to the people. Parliament convenes on June 18, at which time all members will take their oaths of office.

The Prime Minister was responding to a statement by opposition leader Keith Rowley, who said Persad-Bissessar's refusal to attend the meeting amounts to dereliction of duty.

But Persad-Bissessar disagrees.

"I was of the view that we have not been sworn into the Parliament and it is the people who elected us to represent them there. It would be offensive to the people to travel to represent them without taking the oath in the Parliament," she old the Express.

She said based on that the government took a policy decision that stipulates that no minister would go on any official travel out of the country until Parliament convenes.

Persad-Bissessar explained that technocrats will represent the country at the CARICOM meeting. She said her government has extended apologies to Clinton and CARICOM leaders.

"We meant no disrespect to anyone," she said.

Rowley has argues that a meeting with Clinton would have been very useful for the country and the region. "The fact that there was an election and the Government changed cannot interfere with that, we still have a Government," Rowley told the Express.

He claimed that the Kamla administration doesn’t understand its role. "Somebody must tell Kamla she is not the Prime Minister in the Parliament which is the legislator, she is the Prime Minister of the executive, she has taken an oath at Knowsley and that oath is good enough, she is now the Prime Minister," he added.

Rowley also took a swipe again at Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner, who is in South Africa on FIFA businsess ans suggested that the Prime Minister has no control Warner.

Warner's visit to South Africa is in his private capacity as a Fifa official and does not violate the rule established by the Prime Minister. He is Vice President of FIFA and is not representing the government of Trinidad and Tobago.