Golding

A BILL to amend the Financial Administration and Audit Act was on Friday rejected by the Senate after Opposition Senator Mark Golding highlighted a myriad of technical flaws in the proposed law.

A number of provisions in the bill will have to be revised or redrafted to remedy inconsistencies and technical weaknesses in the statute.

After sifting through a number of provisions in the bill, Golding concluded that the measure could not be passed in its present state.

"I don't think this bill is in a condition to be passed today (Friday). I think that there are numerous discrepancies, which I have highlighted and I would recommend that it be withdrawn and an attempt be made to improve some of these things before we pass it," Golding, who had received the bill a day before, contended.

Senate President Oswald Harding agreed with Golding's assessment of the proposed law, saying the bill could not go forward.

"I was very grateful for the intervention by Mr Golding ... I think that we should be proud because the Senate is doing its job. That's what we are here for. We are not here to rubber-stamp any and everything sent here," he asserted.

Golding later told The Gleaner that aspects of the bill lacked substance and there were problems with the drafting of the bill.

He said there were also policy concerns that the attorney general's department should have picked up on before the legislation came to Parliament.

According to Golding, the Senate was more meticulous in its review of legislation than the House.

"That's our role as a review chamber, to bring a stronger technical analysis to the legislation."

Intervention

However, the opposition senator said he would want to see issues like these resolved before they reach Parliament "because it is symptomatic of the level of care and professionalism that is being brought to the legislative process at the present time".

In her intervention, Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne admitted that the bill had technical faults.

"We thank Senator Golding for the points raised during the debate, some of them we don't agree with but others are technical and others of some substantive importance," Lightbourne acknowledged.

"In the interest of good governance and to ensure that we get out what is a sound and technically correct bill, I ask that the debate be suspended," she said.

Prior to her decision, Lightbourne had asked for a recess to consult with legal counsel from the attorney general's department.

In an earlier comment, Lightbourne said Jamaica had international obligations under the legislation.

"It has to do with accountability, transparency, the fight against corruption and to satisfy our obligation that we are taking steps in that regard," she had said.

Senator Don Wehby, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, who piloted the bill, said it was intended to make mandatory the establishment of audit committees in government departments. The bill would also give legal effect to the existing Audit Commission, the body to which the audit committees report.

Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, A.J. Nicholson, was not pleased with how the Government was carrying out its legislative duties.

"The fact that this bill is being taken today (Friday) is not the fault of the government members on that side ... because clearly they were asked to have it tabled and taken today (Friday), so we can't blame the minister or leader of government business," he said.

Nicholson instead took a swipe at Finance and the Public Service Minister Audley Shaw, suggesting he was tardy in taking the bill to Parliament.

According to Nicholson, the bill was tabled in the House of Representatives on December 2, last year.

Public scrutiny

"Your (finance) minister did not take it in the House until last week. I am asking now, what's the kind of governance that we (are) dealing with?"

He said the bill was the kind of legislation that should be exposed to public scrutiny.

"It is not your fault Senator Wehby, but we have to do better than this," Nicholson stressed.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com

Pastor Wenford Henry (right), director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), explains the meaning of the ADRA logo to Jennilyn O'Connor (second right), regional pharmacist for the Southern Regional Health Authority, during the handover of several boxes of pharmaceutical drugs to the Mandeville Regional Hospital last Thursday at the hospital's compound. Other hospital pharmacy staff present are (from left) Omar Bennett, Trudy Tomlinson and Kameisha May. - photo by Nigel Coke