Constitutional Review Commission gets six-month extension
The government has announced that the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) has been given an extension from July 8 to December 31, 2023 to complete its mandate.
It was further revealed in a post-meeting Cabinet statement that Cabinet decided to extend Lisa Penn Lettsome’s contract as the CRC’s Chairman for the same period.
The Cabinet also amended its previous decision regarding payment of stipends to commission members so that they can be paid 70 percent of their stipends now, and 30 percent upon submission of the report, based on the amounts that the chairman recommended.
Previously, Cabinet said the Deputy Chair and members of the CRC are to be paid a stipend of $12,000 and $10,000, respectively, upon the submission of the CRC’s final report.
At the time, Cabinet advised that this is on the provision that the amount may be prorated based on the submission of the Chairman’s report and on the members’ level of participation on the CRC.
The CRC, which was reconstituted last year, was charged with, among other things, evaluating the Constitution Order, 2007, and making a determination on whether it is a strategic fit to facilitate the people of the territory in achieving a revised vision of the preamble to the current Order.
Other terms of reference for the Commission include making recommendations for examining whether independent institutions enshrined in the Constitution are sufficient and effective enough to ensure good governance.
The CRC is also expected to consider making recommendations in relation to the powers that need to be reserved to the governor, and how issues about the exercise of devolved and reserved powers are to be resolved when they arise.
Recommendations are also to be made on a mechanism for the transfer of reserved powers to the devolved BVI government, in the future, without a further change to the constitution being required.
The issue of whether the Speaker should continue to be a political appointment, or whether he or she, even if elected, should be independent of the political parties will also see recommendations from the CRC.
It will also make recommendations on the proper relationship between ministers and their departments and whether statutory boards should be embedded in the constitution and if there should be a Statutory Boards Commission.
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Lisa is the right person for this job, which needs to be done thoroughly and carefully. The extension makes sense.
The commission of Inquiry Act must be modernized and thereby amended. It must allow the rights of people to be the order of the day and there should be a panel of Commissioners and not a one man Commissioner solely selected by the Governor and UK. CARICOM, OECS, UN, UK, & LOCAL GOVERNMENT should all be allowed one selection to be on the Commissioner panel and they all must select persons to assist the panel as the staff. They all should agree with the terms of reference as well. All colonial clauses in the Act needs to be removed as it was written in 1880. No Commissioner should have the powers of a High Court Judge as this is legally and morally wrong.
But why this story ain report Lisa contract is 230k a year? Why only report on the stipend the other members gettin? What going on here? You don want anybody know how good she … living off the government but still cussin the Government? Come on BVI News!
Anybody on this committee ever had a bad day yet? …They were all born with silver spoons in their mouths.
I really do not know why her contract sum was not released. Perhaps it was because Govt. getting a “steal of a deal”. If it was some similarly qualified UK expat, Govt would be paying double for the same service. Just because it is a local person, there should be no issue over what she is being paid. Which is actually below what I would expect her to be making if she was in the private sector.
Silver spoons? You know all the people on the Committee? Obviously not!!
And when are we going to get a report on the work this commission is doing. Here we go again with another extension but what results are they yielding. What is the point and benefit of this? This Lady is not worth the money they are paying her, she didn’t make it in the private sector and is clearly not making it here!