Corruption Prevention Bill Referred to Joint Select Committee

A Bill to amend the Corruption Prevention Act has been referred to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament for deliberation, following debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (Nov. 21).
Addressing colleague members, Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips explained that the amendment sought to provide powers to the Commission to secure access to information that may be held in other departments.
“Issues have been raised relating to the need for additional staff, the powers that may be exercised such as the ability to secure information from other agencies,” he said.
The Bill also provides for access to information that should be supplied by revenue commissioners, banks, financial institutions, building societies, cooperative societies, accountants, industrial, and provident societies among others.
“All of this would enhance the investigative capacity of the Corruption Prevention Commission. The regulations would alter the number of positions that should be reporting to the Corruption Prevention Commission essentially,” Dr. Phillips noted.
Minister Phillips said the Government was of the view that the amendment to the Act and the amendment to the regulations “ought to be properly before this committee so as not to short circuit the powers of the committee of the powers of the review, which were properly ordered by the House and indeed, which is provided for by the legislation”.
He further assured that the input of the Committee was necessary, as he said, were the government to simply pass the Bill, this could cause an erosion of the synergy, which had been developed between the Commission and the investigative and prosecutorial agencies.