Richard Lord

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.