GOVERNMENT IS now working out ways to reduce the number of public servants who will be required to file reports with the Corruption Prevention Commission as it tries to make the work of the commissioners more manageable.
Speaking at the The Gleaner's Editors' Forum yesterday, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, A.J. Nicholson, disclosed that the regulations setting out how the Commission should operate, would soon be tabled in Parliament.
He said the tabling of the regulations has been held up because the Government has been trying to find a way to limit the number of persons who would need to make reports to the Commission. This is being done using as guidelines the salaries of public servants as well as their positions.
"You can't have 200,000 integrity reports going to the Commissioners," he said.
He added that the Government was now looking at the model employed by Canada, deriving from New York, to determine how to cut the number of reports to a manageable level while still having a representative sample of the entire public sector.
The Minister is also pushing to have the Government increase the proposed salaries for members of the Corruption Prevention Com-mission. He said he had written to Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, requesting a review of the proposed salaries for members of the Commission.
"His (Dr. Davies) people are looking into the matter again because we believe that if the commissioners are not well paid, we might be defeating the purpose," the Attorney-General said.
Recently, the Government placed advertisements in the press for posts with the Commission. These posts included that of the secretary/manager, who would be paid an annual salary of between $1.1 million and $1.3 million.
This touched off heated discussions in some quarters, with persons arguing that the salaries were too low to attract applicants of the requisite calibre to carry out the duties, responsibilities and authority of the office.
Senator Nicholson also indicated that he will be meeting today (Thursday) with the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Chief Justice to look at, among other things, the backlog of cases in the Coroner's court system.
"The whole of that area cannot remain as it is. It does not do us any justice," he said. Among the ideas being contemplated is using medical doctors to handle simple cases that would normally go before a coroner.
At the same time, the Minister disclosed that the Legal Affairs Committee of CARICOM, which has its next meeting in February, will look at a proposal to change local libel laws in an effort to protect media, which republish libel picked up from international news services.
Senator Nicholson said the Legal Affairs Committee has not been able to find a mechanism to implement such an amendment and is therefore considering whether to get a legal expert to look at the matter.
He also suggested that local media put together their own legal position on the issue.
"You might say that we have taken a long time on this but it is a knotty problem," he said.
