Government Committed to Whistleblower Legislation…says PM

Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, says Government is committed to pursuing the Whistleblower Legislation and that its application will be for both the public and private sectors.
“Whistleblower Legislation is an important initiative to provide another layer of protection to persons within the system, who are themselves opposed to conduct and activities that violate the tenets of the system, but who are not prepared to come forward because of the consequences. This (the Act) would apply to people in the public and private sectors, who are seeing things that ought not to happen, and provide them protection,” Mr. Golding said.
The Prime Minister was speaking this morning (Nov 18), at the Government of Jamaica Audit Commission and the Ministry of Finance’s Symposium, at the Knutsford Court hotel in Kingston. The symposium was held under the theme, Audit Committees – Partnering for Better Governance.
Noting that the internal audit was important to the functioning of Government Machinery, the Prime Minister said that more needs to be done to ensure that the auditor’s findings are used by management to improve work.
“Each year, Parliament receives voluminous reports from Audit that highlights shortages and weaknesses and the perception exists that we run a loose shop and all of this eventually costs the taxpayers a lot. The challenge is how to keep Government moving, while ensuring that proper practices are observed.There is no system in place to ensure that things are followed up. There needs to be policy synchronisation – ensuring the appropriate comfort level between policy direction and policy implementation,” Mr. Golding noted.
The Audit Commission is a body of the Ministry of Finance. It was established by Cabinet decision in 2005, to monitor the performance of the 28 audit committees in Government. These include all Government Ministries, Departments and Executive Agencies.