OPPOSITION Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw believes the finance minister, Dr Peter Phillips, overstepped his bounds in his comments on the Finsac Commission of Enquiry.

“He overstepped his bounds when he suggested in a cavalier manner that he would only find some for the stenographers and that is about it,” Shaw told a press briefing at the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Headquarters in Kingston last Friday.

Speaking to the Jamaica Observer on Monday, Shaw suggested that the commissioners appeal to the governor general for support to complete their work under the Commissions of Enquiry Act. He pointed out that the Commission, which has been probing the 1990s financial sector meltdown and the role of the Government-owned Financial Sector Adjustment Company Limited (Finsac) in settling the debt issue since 2009, falls under the Act, which gives it protection against Government interference.

Shaw pointed to Section 13 of the Act, which states: “The governor general may direct what renumeration, if any, shall be paid to any commissioners acting under this Act, and to their secretary, and to any other persons employed in or about any such Commission, and may direct payment of any other expenses attendant upon the carrying out of any such Commission, or upon any proceedings for any penalty under this Act. Such sums, so directed to be paid, shall be paid by the Accountant General out of the ordinary cash balance in the Treasury.

“The law is specific, all they need to do is to seek the intervention of the governor general,” Shaw insisted.

The Commission, which was appointed in October 2008, has been sitting since September 2009, but did not sit for much of 2010 as a result of the court action which eventually led to the disqualification of the original chairman, Justice Boyd Carey. Finsac was established in January 1997 to restore stability to Jamaica’s financial institutions after the meltdown.

The commissioners had planned to have their legal adviser, retired jurist Justice Downer, complete a draft report by April and release an interim report in May, and a final report in August. But with a five-month setback, this was derailed by the lack of funding.

The public enquiry ended in November 2011, but the Commission has received no funds since January to complete its report.

Dr Phillips told Parliament, as he closed the budget debate last week, that only funds to pay stenographers would be made available. Finsac has already cost the country some $65 million.