THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY’s (BLP) Integrity Commission Bill has a number of grey areas and shortcomings which need to be examined.
Alicia Archer, a member of Integrity Group Barbados, said they were supportive of anyone who would take “a direct challenge to corruption” which they believed was becoming entrenched in society.
Speaking to Starcom Network’s David Ellis yesterday, Archer said they would also like to have dialogue on the proposal.
She gave the thumbs up to the investigative powers of the commission and its ability to summon people in the same fashion as a judge of the Supreme Court. However, one concern was the subsequent turning over of prosecution to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“If you have a director with a certain level of fortitude, fine. However, if you have somebody who is politically affiliated, or who literally does not have the testicular fortitude to carry the prosecution through, then the work of the commission is stymied,” she said.
“Perhaps it would be better if the commission itself were able to prosecute the criminal acts that are discovered or come up duringthe course of its investigation without having to pass it off to another entity.”
The BLP proposal also precluded investigation into matters that fell under the purview of another public official. She cited the example of the Auditor General and asked if those would be excluded.
Additionally, the protection for whistle-blowers also needed to be made clearer, as well as term limits for members of the commission, who also needed the assurance that they would not be victimised for decisions taken while on the commission.
Last Saturday, shadow attorney general Dale Marshall announced that a BLP administration would lay an Integrity Commission Bill during the first sitting of the House of Assembly if it formed the next Government of Barbados.
It comes as Barbados fell 16 places in Transparency International’s ranking of the least corrupt countries in the world, landing at 31 out of 176.
The ruling Democratic Labour Party piloted anti-corruption legislation in 2012, but it has never been proclaimed. (SAT)