Issues surrounding Constitutional Review Commission membership and the Register of Interests Bill were highlighted as specific areas of concern by His Excellency Governor John Rankin as he told of the impact that political culture has had on the process of implementing the Commission of Inquiry Report’s recommendations.
Governor Rankin said that despite being generally pleased that “the approach of the Premier and Cabinet has been one of constructive engagement and partnership in delivery of the letter and the spirit of the COI recommendations and the reform plan in the Framework document”, he has been frank with the Cabinet on his “concerns about the level of commitment to the level of meaningful reform required”.
One reason for this he said was an unjustified, strong resistance to some proposals submitted for changes to the membership of the Constitutional Review Commission.
As stated in the Framework document, the process should have been guided by joint agreement from the Governor and the Premier on membership and done in a manner where the Cabinet supported “the broadest possible participation from across the Virgin Islands society in the Constitutional Review Process”.
Rankin reported, however, that what unfolded “ran counter to the importance of the Commission being representative of the BVI as a whole”.
HOA proceeded contrary to the Register of Interests recommendations
On the matter of the Register of Interests, Rankin reported that the House of Assembly (HOA) proceeded contrary to COI recommendation B2, through amendments made to the draft legislation approved by Cabinet.
In the COI Report, it was found that members of the House of Assembly across all political parties had failed to adhere to their obligation to register their interests and that it was a case where this failure was a collective, deliberate and persistent means of undermining the system controls imposed by the Constitution.
In response to the recommendations made to address this issue, the Cabinet brought the “Register of Interests Bill” to the House of Assembly, where it was passed with amendments in July.
In line with the Framework document, the Bill set out penalties for members of the HOA who failed to declare their interest on time. However, amendments made to the Bill challenged recommendations for the Bill to be accessible to the public.
These included requiring a written application and a fee from anyone wishing to view the register, having viewers monitored by the Registrar during the viewing process and prohibiting any copy or note taking of the Register’s contents.
All measures which Governor Rankin argues “are contrary to the principle of transparency and the intent of both Recommendation B2 and the commitment in the Framework document”.
Rankin noted that the fallout of those proceedings has been discussed on the question of public access to draft legislation, including any amendments made in the HOA before assent, to keep the public informed and allow members of the public ample opportunity to express their views.