Reporting structure being set up for Complaints Commissioner
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has announced that a mechanism is being worked out to allow reports from the Complaints Commissioner to be sent directly to the Governor.
In a recent statement in the House of Assembly (HOA), Premier Wheatley noted that draft Cabinet papers have been prepared to facilitate the Complaints Commissioner reporting annually to the HOA’s Standing Finance Committee (SFC).
Dr Wheatley said this is being done to “set out the extent to which there has been a response to the Commissioner’s criticisms and recommendations, and also to establish a reporting structure for the Commissioner to report to the Governor and Deputy Governor.”
The mechanism will also incorporate recommended response times to these complaints, the Premier added.
The new measures announced are in keeping with Recommendation 45 of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) report and were scheduled to be implemented by July 31, the Premier said.
In the meantime, COI Commisssioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom said in his report that the move would give the House or Committee an opportunity to scrutinise the report and raise questions about it as part of the budget process.
COI testimony
In their testimony before the COI, both Erica Smith-Penn and Sheila Brathwaite — the current Complaints Commissioner and her predecessor — explained that, if they had a suspicion of corruption during one of their investigations, in practice they would either refered it to the Governor (and then to the Auditor General who has more investigative powers) or refer it directly to the relevant criminal authorities.
It was noted however, that the Complaints Commissioner can only make recommendations, and Brathwaite considered that recommendations were ignored in “at least 50 per cent of the cases”.
She suggested that consideration should be given to the Complaints Commissioner having the power to require public officers to adopt recommendations made.
The former Complaints Commissioner did not regard the ability to lay a special report before the HOA as an effective means of enforcement.
Both women favoured the setting up of a Standing Committee of the HOA to which the Complaints Commissioner’s reports would be sent and which had powers to require compliance.
Currently, the Commissioner is required to send a copy of a report to the relevant government department or public body, the Governor, and each member of the Cabinet.
However, the COI report pointed out that, in practice, it is not sent to each Cabinet member but only to the Premier. A draft document is also sent to the relevant Minister whose subject area is under scrutiny before the report is finalised.
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Send everything straight to Massa. Natalio is a completely dote. He continues to take power out of the locally elected government’s hands and place them in the hands of one person which is worse. Is the governor some sort of perfect human being? I don’t understand this. Is he infallible? Is he not capable of being incompetent? Look at the civil service and police under him, aren’t they in a mess?
Natalio, wake the h**l up and stop this craziness. Engage people in the public and come up with other ways to address the issues effectively without being a stooge for the governor on everything. Ministers are responsible for their ministries. The Premier is the head of ministers. Create the oversight in the House of Assembly. Let the governor deal with things from his group. You keep giving away the ministerial authority.
need to be established for all the CC’s reports to the Governor. In the past the CC’s reports were never provided or so late(years!) that the report to the Guv was out of date.
There is a need for you to understand governance before making such contribution. For the sake of argument, let’s say that the compliant is in relation to a ministry (in which case it would be) do you think there would be adequate oversight if the Minister responsible for the Ministry in question has an say in the outcome?
I would think an individual/agency independent of the ministries would be more objective in the decision making process.
Will the complainant be informed when it it forwarded to the Governor?
We know all too well that complaints are routinely “lost”
In my opinion,, the Govermor should be informed and receive a copy of the complaint when it is made and subsequently when it has been addressed and upon completion. .. and within a set time,follow up by the Governor if there has been no activity or in active status for an unreasonable length of time.
looks like you got a problem with transparency / so you trying racism as an excuse ?
Look at the glaring injustice done to SOME workers by their employees. And I am referring to workers who paid into their SOCIAL SECURITY funds … Just think that your cash was taken out of pay and was NEVER paid in and in some cases sporadic payments into the scheme … The entire Government knows all Ministers of Government know and YET to date nothing , no policy is put in place for such ACTIONS. What do you call that . This has been going on for years ? Not OPEN and GLARING injustice . All of us have an idea why it is not done !!
Yet still we pride ourselves in saying we are a Christian Society !! Where is the VOICE of the Christian Council?
Hundreds of people left the country without being compensated