JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Constitution Commission Report recommends No declarations until Integrity probes begin

by

20140120

The Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion says con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en to al­ter­ing the pro­ce­dure of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion to pro­vide for cit­i­zens to "swear to an un­der­tak­ing that they would pro­vide de­c­la­ra­tions" if they were the sub­ject of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.This pro­pos­al is con­tained in the 47-page Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion Re­port, which is ex­pect­ed to be dis­cussed in Cab­i­net this week.

The re­port said al­low­ing cit­i­zens to swear "would en­hance the ca­pac­i­ty of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion to func­tion more ef­fec­tive­ly by chang­ing its fo­cus from chas­ing down hun­dreds of de­c­la­ra­tions to ex­am­in­ing on­ly those that re­quire in­ves­ti­ga­tion."The re­port said the ex­ist­ing pro­ce­dure had be­come "cum­ber­some and in­ef­fi­cient and has pre­vent­ed many per­sons from com­ing for­ward to serve."

It not­ed that many peo­ple in pub­lic life were re­luc­tant to come for­ward to serve "be­cause of their con­cern about the process of manda­to­ry fil­ing of their as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties with the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion."And the Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion said: "The im­pres­sion has been cre­at­ed that the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion has be­come an in­sti­tu­tion that is re­quired to con­duct in­ves­ti­ga­tions at the be­hest of politi­cians who may be seek­ing to em­bar­rass oth­er politi­cians who hold of­fices in pub­lic."

It not­ed the last three chair­men of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion–John Mar­tin, Fr Hen­ry Charles and Dr Er­ic St Cyr–re­signed due to con­tro­ver­sies as­so­ci­at­ed with their tenure.The re­port said con­se­quent­ly "this has strained the moral au­thor­i­ty of the com­mis­sion (In­tegri­ty) to as­sert it­self as the moral po­lice of the so­ci­ety."The re­port fur­ther stat­ed that non-com­pli­ance with the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act should be met with sanc­tions for the of­fend­ing par­ties and the oblig­a­tion to make de­c­la­ra­tions "should be en­forced rigid­ly."

The re­port al­so pro­pos­es a fixed date for gen­er­al elec­tion and the re­call of MPs. It was rec­om­mend­ed that MPs be re­called "af­ter the ex­pi­ra­tion of three years and not in the fifth year."It fur­ther said the right of re­call should be re­strict­ed on­ly to those con­stituents who vot­ed in the elec­tion in that con­stituen­cy and the pe­ti­tion for re­call should at­tain the re­quire­ment of two-thirds of the vot­ers for it to be ef­fect­ed. It al­so rec­om­mend­ed a two-term lim­it for a prime min­is­ter.

An­oth­er ma­jor change be­ing pro­posed re­lates to the method of ap­point­ment for the Sen­ate Pres­i­dent."The Pres­i­dent should des­ig­nate the Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate from among those sen­a­tors ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent in his own dis­cre­tion," the re­port rec­om­mend­ed. Un­der the ex­ist­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al arrange­ments, the Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate is elect­ed by sen­a­tors at the first meet­ing af­ter a gen­er­al elec­tion. This is done be­fore any oth­er busi­ness.

The re­port al­so said the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) "ought to be re­viewed to en­sure the in­de­pen­dence of the lat­ter." It added the re­view was nec­es­sary be­cause of pre­vi­ous con­tro­ver­sies be­tween the two of­fices. The Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed that the DPP "should be award­ed an in­de­pen­dent fis­cal vote which would be au­dit­ed by the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al, whose re­port would be laid in Par­lia­ment."

An­oth­er rec­om­men­da­tion is for the of­fice of the DPP to "re­port to the Pres­i­dent an­nu­al­ly on his per­for­mance which shall in­clude sta­tis­tics as may be pre­scribed."It said the DPP's re­port should be laid in Par­lia­ment.The Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion was chaired by Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Prakash Ra­mad­har and the re­port was com­plet­ed on De­cem­ber 27, 2013 af­ter pub­lic and pri­vate con­sul­ta­tions with stake­hold­ers.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored