St Helena : Legislature Meets on Friday
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Juanita Brock) 23.07.2004 (Article Archived on 08.08.2004)

There wias a formal session of Legislative Council on Friday 23rd July at 10:00 am in the Courthouse.

Formal Meeting of Legislative Council

There wias a formal session of Legislative Council on Friday 23^rd July at 10:00 am in the Courthouse.  This will be the 1^st Sitting of the 4^th Session, and is essentially the Budget Session whereby the Appropriation Bill 2004/05 will be debated.  The Budget session is normally held during the month of March, prior to the start of a new financial year, however it was necessary to invoke the provisions of section 14 of the Financial Management Ordinance to enable the Governor to issue a provisional warrant for expenditure for the period 1 April – 31 July 2004.  In addition, the Financial Management (Special Expenditure Provisions 2004/05 Ordinance, 2004) was also enacted on 24 March 2004 to authorise additional expenditure over and above the amount which could be approved in accordance with Section 14 of the Financial Management Ordinance for the same period.

All of this was necessary because of the anticipated delay in the enactment of the Appropriation Ordinance for 2004/05, given the fact that the Department for International Development (DFID) was unable to make their visit to St Helena before April/May 2004 to negotiate the three-year aid agreement for 2004/05 to 2006/07.

It is likely that this session will span over three days during which three other Bills will be debated.  They are, the Charities Bill, Endangered Species Protection (Amendment) Bill, and the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill.

In addition a motion will be brought to the House to request Her Majesty’s Government to prepare a new Constitution for St Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha in accordance with the principles set out in the Heads of Agreement;  and, to take the steps outlined in the Heads of Agreement to enable the new Constitution to be brought into force upon the dissolution of the current Legislation Council so that the next general election can be held under the new Constitution.

Public Relations/Information Office

Office of the Chief Secretary

21 July 2004

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