-Senator Chea Questions Its Understanding Of Legislature’s Concurrent Oversight Functions
Sinoe County Senator and Chairman on the Senate Judicial Committee, Cllr. Augustine Chea has put spotlight on members of the Rule of Law Caucus of the House of Representatives, questioning their understanding of legislature’s concurrent oversight functions.
Writing on his Facebook page, Senator Chea said the argument advanced by the ‘Rule of Law Caucus’ against the Senate in the matter of LPRC’s petroleum storage fees not only lack constitutional grounding, but also defies a basic understanding of the Legislature’s concurrent oversight functions.
“Yesterday, at a press conference, the ‘Rule of Law Caucus’ questioned the constitutional authority of the Senate to independently investigate the petroleum pricing structure of LPRC and recommend to the President that a portion of the petroleum storage fees be set aside for identified national priorities,” Senator Chea noted.
The lawmaker said the argument that the Senate cannot recommend to the President how the storage fees should be used is misleading. “It is equally misleading that the recommendations and the approval by the President amount to making appropriations,” he added.
“Recommending that a portion of petroleum storage fees be used for county road equipment maintenance and feeder road construction and maintenance is a policy recommendation, not appropriations,”Sen. Chea said. “It is advisory, not executive. The power to legislate and make appropriations is a joint function of the Legislature (the Senate and the House Representatives), and the Senate has not crossed that boundary.”
He argued that the Executive formulates the national budget based on its priorities and submits the draft budget to the Legislature, which makes appropriations — the process by which the Legislature reviews, amends, and approves the use of public funds for specific government departments or programs.
“The recommendations of the Senate, approved by the President, will be included in the draft budget from the Executive as LPRC’s contribution to the budget. It is only when the budget is passed by the Legislature that the Government can legally spend the money. Why some of our colleagues on the other side do not understand that?”
Senator noted that there is also the argument that the fees assessed by LPRC are taxes and that LPRC does not have the legal authority to impose and collect taxes. And the argument that LRA cannot collect fees for LPRC.
“Fees charged by public corporations or government agencies for their services are not taxes under the Revenue Code (see sections 4f & g); they are payments made in exchange for their services. And while public corporations and government agencies often collect these fees directly, the LRA may collect them on their behalf if legally authorized to do so. It is important to note that even though these fees are not taxes under the Code, the law allows them to be collected using tax procedures (i.e. as if they were tax liabilities, and persons responsible for them may be treated like taxpayers,” the Sinoe County lawmaker said.
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