ATTORNEY General Patrick Atkinson is expected to present his opinion on the public sector pension reform proposal when the committee meets again at Gordon House today.

It is more than three weeks since Atkinson appeared before the committee, explaining why he had withdrawn an original opinion from his office that the proposed changes

were both unconstitutional and illegal.

Atkinson had made a similar statement to the House of Representatives the previous day, and was fulfilling a commitment to clarify any concerns the committee had. He told the committee he would produce his opinion early the following week. The next meeting that was scheduled for July 4 was postponed at the last minute without

any explanation.

At the June 20 meeting, which was the last meeting of the committee, Minister of Justice Mark Golding noted that the International Monetary Fund had indicated that the public sector pension reform was crucial to a new agreement, which in turn was crucial to Jamaica accessing critical funding from important multilateral and bilateral agreements.

Atkinson's position from June 20, when the committee last met, was that his opinion was "quite contrary" to the original opinion from his office.