DEAR EDITOR – I find the call by Mr Feratalia for the disbanding of the current care-taker Cabinet a scary proposition.
The expression, “care-taker cabinet or care-taker ministers”, is not used in the national Constitution.
Those expressions have, however, been used as political nomenclature to describe the transitional government in the period between dissolution of Parliament and the election of the next Prime Minister (and hence appointment of new Crown Ministers).
It is section 34(3) of the Constitution which allows the Prime Minister to stay in office until “when, after a general election, the members of Parliament meet to elect a Prime Minister...”.
And it is section 34(6) which allows a Minister to continue holding onto his/her office until “upon the election of any person to the office of Prime Minister”.
The call by Mr Feratalia is scary by reason of the following:
1. The Governor General mostly acts on the advice of the Cabinet, and so if there was no Cabinet in the transitional period, the Governor General would be unable to perform most of his functions.
2. If, during period of dissolution of Parliament, SI was at war with a country, Governor General would need a Cabinet to advise him on whether to declare by proclamation a state of emergency.
3. If no provision or an insufficient provision was made in the Appropriation Act, but there was an urgent need for continuance of necessary public services, only the Minister of Finance, by virtue of s.104 of the Constitution, could issue warrant for payment out of the Consolidated Fund for meeting costs of continuing with such services.
4. Many Acts of Parliament vest specific powers and functions upon Ministers. The machinery of government could come to a standstill if all ministerial powers and functions were not exercised or performed by the responsible Ministers.
With respect, the call by Mr Feratalia may wait another day when we come to review our constitution and statutes or the legal/political framework.
Gabriel Suri,
Attorney General
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