Senate committee to review Companies Act A SENATE committee is to be appointed to review the Companies Act 2001 before it is read a second time in the Upper House. The legislation, which will govern the formation and operation of local companies, was passed in the House of Representatives on May 8, but will not be debated in the Senate at least until September when the Upper House resumes after its summer recess. "Rather than having a lengthy debate on the second reading, we will call a small Senate committee that will consider these and other comments from other members and try to resolve issues during the recess period," said Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Maxine Henry-Wilson. She said the Senate would resume at the second reading of the Bill when it returns and, hopefully, pass the Bill then. Independent Senator, Douglas Orane, has suggested that the committee carefully examine comments by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and the Jamaica Bar Association on the 430-page Bill since it is a very technical piece of legislation. "With the best of intentions, there are improvements that were made, but they have repercussions in other areas and we have to be cognisant of that," he said. "I believe we need to get all of this in a form where we have a well-crafted Bill, because we're going to have to live with it for the next several decades and we've spent nearly three years in this process alone. Let's spend the extra effort to make sure that what we actually pass we can all be truly proud of," Senator Orane said. A number of Senators, including Government Members Alfred Rattray and Fred Hamaty, have raised concerns about aspects of the Bill, including the issue of par and non par shares.
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