–to be sent Chief Parliamentary Counsel for advice
The reworked draft of the Code of Conduct for Ministers, Members of Parliament and Public Office holders is to be sent to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel for legal advice as to whether the draft code should now be incorporated as an amendment to the Integrity Commission Acts.
This is according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who received the reworked code yesterday at a simple ceremony, at his office at Shiv Chanderpaul Drive. The document was handed over to the Prime Minister by members of the sub- committee that was established to review it.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo explained that the document, as an amendment to the Integrity Commission Acts, will ensure that government is not dealing with separate pieces of legal instruments, regulating or monitoring the conduct of persons holding public office. The move, he explained, will allow for “one consolidated law, that should be the guide and should be enforced, in so far as infraction of the law is concerned or any inadequacy to meet up to the requirement of the legislation.”
Government in setting out to rework the code of conduct, had done so with the view “that there is a great need for, and emphasis on the code of conduct for persons in public life,” the PM said.
Since the Integrity Commission Acts provides for declaration of assets and for justification of assets in the name of persons who hold office and their spouses and children of a specified age, Government also sought to broaden the integrity legislation to include the prescriptions that are in fact prescription for a code of conduct within the integrity legislation, the PM said.
Smile