Thursday, March 18, 2010

Kamla pledges to bring back anti-corruption commission bill

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar told reporters Wednesday the UNC wants to take to Parliament a bill to establish a permanent body to deal independently with corruption.

She was speaking at a media briefing in San Fernando after meeting with the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUN) and NGOs at the OWTU headquarters.

Persad-Bissessar reminded reporters that the UNC government introduced a bill for an Anti-Corruption Commission that would have allowed independent investigations into allegations made against the Government.


She said when the Manning administration took office the bill was dropped.


"But I intend to dust that out and bring it back to the Parliament. It is a permanent independent commission where a staff would be hired to investigate matters throughout the year.

"And it also provides, for a whistle blower, protections where people can raise matters anonymously and not be scared about losing their jobs," she said.

Persad-Bissessar promised to continue to expose corruption taking place in public offices, including the Housing Development Corporation.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has spoken of corruption in the housing sector, noting that some individuals are taking big bribes for allocating homes to individuals.

The opposition leader also demanded the immediate resignation of all members of the UDeCOTT board, adding that if they fail to quit Manning should fire them.

Commenting on her discussions with labour leaders, Persad-Bissessar said she is concerned about many issues affecting labour.

And she promised measures to help workers.


"I also intend to return a legislation to deal with employee benefits which never saw the light of day after we left office. It provides that injured workers would have the satisfaction of knowing that their families would be compensated in cases on injury," she said.

She also said she would march with workers on labour day in Fyzabad on June 19. She also offered FITUN a temporary Senate seat whenever labour issues arise in Parliament.

3 comments:

Ronald Bhola said...

Kamla's record and perfomance has been to stay quiet when the Treasury was under attack.

Bahtman said...

sounds like a good plan to me!

Anonymous said...

Ronald are you mad or just dotish, what do you mean or what is your agenda here

Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai