By Robert Hart, Parliamentary Reporter
Nicholson... 'I have brothers and sisters and cousins in this country and Mr. X or Mrs. X or Dr. Y doesn't have any greater reason to want the rights of persons to be protected than me.'
JUSTICE MINISTER, Senator A.J. Nicholson, yesterday blasted the government's critics on human rights issues, saying the current administration is responsible for the country's greatest achievements in the expansion of civil liberties.
The Senator, who is also the Attorney-General, became irritated when Opposition members of the Senate suggested that the government might stamp on public servants' rights to privacy with legislation, allowing the Corruption Prevention Commission to request information from individuals' bankers, accountants and others.
"One of the things I take umbrage with in this society is when people start to accuse me or any of us (government) of trampling on people's rights," the justice minister said.
"There is no administration in the history of Jamaica that has expanded the rights of the people as this administration."
Mr. Nicholson also declared that he was sure the Opposition would continue to incessantly claim that the government was legislating against citizens' rights in any kind of legislation brought before Parliament in the future.
He added: "I have brothers and sisters and cousins in this country and Mr. X or Mrs. X or Dr. Y doesn't have any greater reason to want the rights of persons to be protected than me."
INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE ACTS OF CORRUPTION
Senator Nicholson was closing the debate on the Corruption Prevention (Amendment) Bill which will bring into law several recommendations made in the commission's first annual report to Parliament. The commission was set up in 2002 to examine and investigate possible acts of corruption committed by appointed members of the public sector.
But in one section of the legislation debated yesterday, it was proposed that the commission be allowed, "if it thinks it necessary for the purpose of carrying out its investigations" to request information on individuals from a revenue commissioner, a bank, or any financial institution licensed under the Financial Institutions Act.
The commission will also be allowed to request information from building societies and accountants.
"At the moment, without any cause, without any reason, the commissioner can write to these institutions and get information on the individual, that is what will happen," argued Opposition Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, who called for changes to be made to provide greater protection for the privacy of the innocent.
However, amidst suggestions that the Opposition was expressing a lack of confidence in the membership of the commission, Senator Lightbourne later pointed out that she was not "imputing motive" behind the commission's request for the added powers.
Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe also noted that it would make little sense for the
commission to go to the individual suspected of
corruption before requesting the required information.
The Bill was subsequently passed without amendment.
