KINGSTON, Jamaica – A parliamentary committee has recommended that the Commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) be added to the list of people to which telecommunications data shall be disclosed under the Telecommunications Act.

In its report currently tabled in the House of Representatives, a Joint Select Committee of Parliament (including members of the House and the Senate) noted a previous court ruling that INDECOM was not entitled to receive telecommunications data or compel disclosure, which was later amended in the Appeal Court to allow INDECOM access to the information in investigating criminal offences.

But, the committee said that in light of the court’s ruling and the concerns raised by INDECOM, it accepted INDECOM’s proposal for the commissioner to be added to the list of people under the Telecommunications Act to which telecommunications data shall be disclosed.

The committee also recommended that the Interception of Communications Act should be amended to give INDECOM powers similar to that of the executive director of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), to issue notice to relevant telecommunications providers regarding traffic data, as is currently set out in the schedule to the Act, “as well as to amend the Act to allow INDECOM to apply for a warrant in the same way that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) does to get interception done”.

The report is expected to be debated when the House next meets on Tuesday at Gordon House.

Balford Henry