Munroe: Ministers overseeing Integrity Commission undermines Parliament
Published:Thursday | August 10, 2023 | 12:06 AM
Founding director of the National Integrity Action (NIA), Trevor Munroe, has argued that setting aside the standing orders of the Lower House to facilitate the appointment of Cabinet ministers to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee undermines a basic function of Parliament in Jamaica’s system of constitutional democracy.
“That function, largely exercised through Sessional Select Committees (SSCs), holds the ministers and ministries, departments and agencies to account for their performance in making policy and in exercising general direction and control of the government,” Munroe pointed out.
Standing Order 68(1) identifies the SSCs of Parliament and stipulates that these committees “shall consist of not less than six members, including the chairman, none of whom shall be a minister or parliamentary secretary”.
The Integrity Commission Oversight Committee has been listed as a SSC comprising nine members, five of whom are Cabinet ministers.
Leader of Government Business Edmund Bartlett had moved a motion to suspend the standing orders to allow for ministers to be named to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee.
Five Cabinet ministers along with other lawmakers on the Government and Opposition benches sit on the committee which is chaired by Bartlett. The other ministers are Delroy Chuck, Marlene Malahoo Forte, Pearnel Charles Jr and Everald Warmington.
Bartlett has defended the Government’s decision to appoint ministers to sit on the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee.
“You have to consider the nature of the committee and the import of the committee too in relation to the Constitution and a number of other critical positions that have to be upheld at the highest levels of leadership in the House,” he said.
“The Parliament also determines the level of importance of departments and creatures of Parliament itself. One of the biggest and most important creatures of Parliament is the Integrity Commission,” he argued.
Watchdogs over themselves
He said the Integrity Commission was one of the most potent creatures of Parliament in recent times as it relates to the value and importance of the work carried out by the anti-corruption body.
However, Munroe contends that Section 69 of Jamaica’s Constitution is clear, noting that the ministers, their departments and agencies are not powers unto themselves but are ‘collectively responsible’ and thereby answerable to the Parliament.
“As such, for ministers to be members of Sessional Select Committees whose main function, on behalf of the Parliament, is to hold ministers to account constitutes a clear conflict of interest,” he added.
“Moreover allowing such a conflict diminishes the already weak capability of Parliament to provide effective oversight of the Executive.”
In this regard, Munroe emphasises that Standing Order 68 (3) correctly prohibits ministers from being, in effect, watchdogs over themselves.
“To abandon this standing order in respect of any Sessional Select Committees, particularly in respect of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee and, thereby, to appoint ministers to that committee runs counter to the basic constitutional principle of ministerial accountability to Parliament.
He contended that at minimum, a compelling justification needs to be provided for this breach in respect of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee.
“In the absence of such a justification, as a matter of principle, Standing Order 68 (3) needs to be applied to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee and members who are ministers withdrawn from that body,” he declared.
At the same time Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding, is also of the view that the “standing order ought to be adhered to on this matter”.
According to Golding, “It is really wrong to populate these committees with members of the Executive when the standing orders don’t allow it”.
Continuing, he said, “It is something which is an issue of principle because the purpose of these committees is to provide oversight to the executive”.
He maintained that the standing orders do not permit members of the executive sitting on Sessional Select Committees because they will have a conflict of interest “insofar as the committee is looking at issues to do with the performance or non-performance or anything else around the conduct of the affairs of the nation by the executive”.
Only two other Sessional Select Committees – the standing orders and the House have ministers appointed to them. In the case of the Standing Orders Committee Bartlett and Olivia Grange are members while Bartlett chairs the House Committee.
(1) There shall be the following Sessional Select Committees:
(a) The Public Accounts Committee
(b) The Standing Orders Committee
(c) The House Committee
(d) The Committee of Privileges
(e) The Regulations Committee
(f) The Public Administration and Appropriations Committee
(g) The Internal and External Affairs Committee
(h) The Economy and Production Committee
(i) The Human Resources and Social Development Committee
(j) The Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee
(k) The Integrity Commission oversight Committee
(l) The Ethics Committee.