Opposition Calls for Parliamentary Committee with Power to Summon Evidence and Witnesses to Oversee Citizenship by Investment Programme

The opposition United Progressive Party is pushing for a new parliamentary oversight committee with the power to compel witnesses and demand evidence — and it wants that committee focused squarely on one of Antigua and Barbuda’s most lucrative and least scrutinised programmes: the Citizenship by Investment Programme.

The opposition also says Parliament has the legal power to create these watchdog bodies.

The Problem with the PAC’s Current Construct

UPP Senator Jonathan Wehner, speaking on Observer AM on Friday, said the Public Accounts Committee — the only parliamentary committee currently in operation — already has the power to issue summons, but the government majority on that body renders it ineffective as a check on executive conduct. “The PAC — this is the only parliamentary committee that we have in operation now. It does have that power [to issue summons], but the issue we have on the current construct of the PAC is the government MPs have the majority, so they can vote down the issuance of any summons and that’s the issue we have there,” Senator Wehner said.

The Solution Is Already in the Standing Orders

Critically, Senator Wehner argued that establishing a more effective oversight structure requires no new legislation — the mechanism already exists in Parliament’s own rulebook.

The senator pointed to Standing Order 85, which provides for members of the Lower House and senators to sit together as a joint select committee. “Because you only have two MPs in the Lower House and that’s not enough to comprise a whole committee, so let’s have what we call joint select committees and that is provided for… A select committee of the House of no more than three members may be appointed to sit with a select committee of the Senate of equal number to form a joint select committee,” Senator Wehner said.

Summons Powers That Cannot Be Refused

Senator Wehner was explicit about the teeth such a committee would carry. “The same thing would happen with the parliamentary committees if there is a committee of Parliament that oversees the operations of the CIU and the CBI programme. That committee, as all of the parliamentary committees do, would have the power to summon witnesses and evidence and you can’t refuse a summons,” he said.

The significance of that point is considerable in the context of the CIP — a programme that generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually, operates with significant opacity, and has been the subject of sustained public concern about how its revenues are managed and to whom its passports are issued. A committee with the power to compel testimony from CIU officials, programme agents, and relevant government ministers would represent a fundamentally different accountability environment than currently exists.

Parliamentarians Must Do Their Fundamental Job

Senator Wehner was direct in his assessment of what the absence of such oversight represents. “It’s time for parliamentarians to do their job, their fundamental job and hold the executive accountable,” he said.

The call for a CIP oversight committee adds to a growing UPP agenda for parliamentary reform that includes the restructuring of the Public Accounts Committee, the establishment of two new sectoral committees, and a broader push for the kind of checks and balances that the opposition argues have been systematically absent from Antigua and Barbuda’s Parliament throughout the Browne administration’s now-fourth consecutive term in office.