Minister of finance and planning Dr Omar Davies says that the actions being taken by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which falls under his ministry, are consistent with the law.

“I don’t intervene in the operational activities of the Financial Services Commission. My job is policy,” Davies told the House of Representatives on Tuesday. “But what I ensure is that what they do must be consistent with the laws under which they operate.”

He noted, too, that the Cabinet had reaffirmed its confidence in the FSC and its intelligence arm, the Financial Intelligence Division (FID), on Monday, in response to a statement made by junior government minister, Errol Ennis that the FID’s raid on Olint’s office last year was “Gestapo-like”.

Dr Davies was responding to comments made by the Opposition’s spokesman on finance and the public service, Audley Shaw, in support of Ennis’ statement.

Ennis, in a letter to the Observer two weeks ago, also described the raid as “a vulgar abuse of state power and highly reflective of the actions of a totalitarian state”.

Shaw said that on previous occasions in the House, he had suggested that Gestapo-like tactics were being practised by the then revenue protection division.

He said that Davies himself had responded with great indignation and was very upset about those comments, but he noted that the same description was now being used by Davies’ own former junior minister of finance and he had neither denied nor refuted them.

He said that against that background, and the concerns that have been expressed in the financial community about the appropriateness of the FSC’s actions, “the minister owes the country and the financial community a further and better remark on this subject”

“It cannot be the duty of a Government to, in any way, seek to suppress the entrepreneurial drive by using the power of the state either illegally, oppressively or in a corrupt way. It cannot be,” Shaw said.

“I take it that the minister of finance enforces the rules where they are enforceable, regulates where regulation is necessary, informs the public of the risks involved where risks are involved and the public education, of course, is vital. But we can’t take the word free out of the concept of a free market economy,” Shaw said.

But Davies responded that the free market could not be interpreted as meaning “that any man can just go out there and promise anything to anybody and he should be free to so do”.

“There are rules, if you claim to be investing these monies,” said Davies. “The FSC, or the central bank for depositing institutions, have the legal obligation to say, ‘tell me what you are doing? Who are you seeking to attract?’ You can’t just have people going around saying, I am forming a club, and the club is ever increasing. You are now publicly selling services.”

Speaking explicitly to the situation at the FSC, Dr Davies noted that the board of the FSC included the solicitor-general of Jamaica and that the commission, in order to take action, has to obtain permission from the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

Privileges, Ethics committees to meet this week

Two important House committees – the Privileges Committee and the Ethics Committee – will meet this week.

The Ethics Committee is expected to look at a number of exemptions being sought by parliamentarians who have become party to contracts with the Government.

This has become necessary since Opposition Leader Bruce Golding’s criticism of the process in which exemption motions were brought to the Parliament by the House leader, Dr Peter Phillips, and passed without any debate or discussions.

However, since Golding raised the issue and Dr Phillips agreed, there has been no announcement about approval of these exemptions by the committee. In fact, the Ethics Committee normally meets in private. It was a big surprise to see their meeting being placed on the schedule, which suggests that it will be open to the media.

Two exemptions were added to the list last week.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved that the member for Central Manchester, former minister of health John Junor, be exempted from having to vacate his seat, as he is in the process of entering into a contract with the Government for the purchase of property at 28 Duesbury Avenue, Kingston 6.

On Friday, the Senate approved that minister of state in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Floyd Morris, be exempted for being a director of LG & M Construction and Sales, which engages in the construction of buildings islandwide and which may, from time to time, enter into contracts with the Government.

Another issue currently before the Ethics Committee is that of the offer from private companies to provide parliamentarians with laptops, free of cost, following the decision last February to allow the use of computers in the chamber.

Again, it was the opposition leader who had objected to a proposal from minister of technology, Phillip Paulwell, that two sources, including Cable and Wireless Jamaica, had agreed to provide the laptops free of cost.

Paulwell told the House that he had accepted the offer on behalf of the members. But Golding questioned the appropriateness of parliamentarians accepting gifts from commercial entities affected by decisions made in Parliament.

. The Committee of Privileges, which is chaired by the Speaker, Michael Peart, meets Wednesday morning to deal with the issue of the censure of Opposition MP Karl Samuda.

Samuda himself raised the issue of the committee’s delay in concluding its deliberations on the issue during last Tuesday’s sitting, asking the Speaker about an undertaking he had given to have the matter dealt with.

Peart responded that the committee would meet on February 7.

Samuda: Is it a mention date?

Speaker: Mr Samuda, that date was set for your convenience.

The Speaker was obviously referring to the fact that the meeting could have been held the previous week but was delayed because of the JLP’s retreat.

On October 3 last year, the House censured Samuda for insisting that the Government had received a report on the controversial Sandals Whitehouse Hotel Project from Noel Hylton, president of the Port Authority of Jamaica, who had been assigned by former Prime Minister P J Patterson to meet with the stakeholders. Both Patterson and his Cabinet have denied receiving a report from Hylton.

The matter was originally sent to the committee in late October, but had to be referred back to the House after the leader of the opposition, Bruce Golding, successfully submitted that the member was already censured by the House and could not be censured a second time.

The matter was sent back to the House for advice on the committee’s terms of reference. It has since been sent back to the committee, following assurances from the leader of the House, Dr Peter Phillips, that he has sought the advice of other Commonwealth Parliaments.

However, there have since been a number of developments in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has been looking into the Sandals issue.

Hylton has sent a letter to the PAC insisting that he had forwarded no report to Patterson or the Cabinet. However, he did state that after several meetings with the party he made a “draft report” but that because he was “unable to fulfil” his mandate, he did not submit a final report to Patterson.

The Committee of Privileges is comprised of nine members – four from each side plus the Speaker: Peart, chairman; O T Williams, Victor Cummings, Charles Learmond, and Dr Patrick Harris (PNP); and, Bruce Golding, Olivia Grange, Ernie Smith and Clive Mullings (JLP).

The Ethics Committee is comprised of Peart, chairman; Dr Peter Phillips, John Junor, and Dr Morais Guy (PNP); and Audley Shaw, Joseph Hibbert and Clive Mullings (JLP).

Senate hails Basil Buck

The Senate paid tribute Friday to the late Basil Buck, a former member of the Upper and Lower houses and minister of state in the Jamaica Labour Party administration of 1980-1989.

Senator Anthony Johnson, the leader of opposition business in the Senate, recalled that Buck was among the last known commercial farmers of anthuriums following the devastation of hurricanes Gilbert and Ivan.

He noted that the late parliamentarian studied at Cornwall College and Calabar High School prior to his tertiary education in Canada and was a pioneer in analysing the performance of companies to assist investors.

Senator Trevor Munroe, who spoke on behalf of the Government, recalled Buck’s contribution as an economic analyst on the morning radio talk show, The Breakfast Club, which he (Munroe) co-hosts.

He described Buck as “invariably civil” in his assessments, as well as “a man of great distinction, of service to our country and one who nobody could ever pin the label of political tribalism on”.

The civil service was reduced from 40,844 employees to 40,502 in 2006, minister of state for finance and planning Fitz Jackson told the House of Representatives Tuesday.

Jackson said that 74 posts were created in the ministries, 79 reclassified, 38 upgraded and 41 retitled, while 31 were abolished. The net result was the reduction in total staff to 40,502.

He said that the changes provided for the employment of staff for the new convalescent home for the police as well as the modernisation of ministries and the upgrading of posts in the internal audit section and the taxation policy division of the Ministry of Finance. There were also new posts created in the Office of the Prime Minister for the Access to Information section as well as the classification of posts in the nutrition and dietetics sections of the paramedical group.

Jackson was piloting a resolution amending the existing Civil Service Order of 2005 which, under the Civil Service Act, requires that the Government table changes made in the civil service establishment annually.