ALMOST two weeks after Justice Minister Senator Mark Golding withdrew the original bankruptcy and insolvency Bill from the floor of the Senate, to allow for the tabling of a new Bill in the House of Representatives, there is still no sign of the new legislation.

“I have no idea,” clerk to Parliament Heather Cooke told the Jamaica Observer on Monday, in response to a query as to whether the Bill would have been tabled on Tuesday in the House of Representatives.

“If we receive it, we will table it but, so far we have not seen it” she said Monday evening. The new Bill was not tabled Tuesday, and there was still no confirmation up to yesterday when it would reach Parliament.

Senator Golding told the Senate on Friday, September 12 that the move to replace his Bill would enable “good order”, and allow for full participation in the debate on a full report from the joint select committee (JSC) in the House of Representatives. He said that the new Bill, which would be an amended form of his Bill, would be tabled, along with full report of the JSC, the following week (September 17) by Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Anthony Hylton in the House of Representatives.

There is concern about the Bill, which has a September 30 benchmark deadline, the second set, under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) current extended fund facility agreement with the Government.

The original Bill was tabled in the Senate on December 20 by Golding, in a last-ditch effort to meet an IMF deadline of December 31 for its tabling. However, it really should have been tabled in the House of Representatives where the responsible minister, Anthony Hylton, sits. Being the minister under whose portfolio the Bill fell, Hylton had to chair the joint select committee named to review the Bill.

On the advice of Parliament’s legal clerk, Cameka Facey, the Government decided that Golding should withdraw the Bill he tabled in December and table only a special committee report in the Senate. Hylton was then expected to table the full report and a new Bill with the more than 100 amendments agreed over the almost nine months the committee met.

However, the new Bill is yet to be tabled.