SOUTH St Catherine Member of Parliament (MP) Fitz Jackson says he is “sick and tired” of the lack of support he has been experiencing with the justice ministry in trying to take the Banking Services (Amendment) Act back to the Parliament.

The proposed bill seeks to give greater protection to consumers in the banking sector, amending the Banking Services Act, to regulate fees and charges which Jackson has long argued are onerous and unfair to consumers.

The MP unleashed his frustration in discussions with Solicitor General Nicole Foster Pusey and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice Carol Palmer yesterday at a meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament.

Debate on the amendments started in January but Jackson had to withdraw the bill in May for it to be re-tabled with changes. Yesterday, Jackson complained that it had not been given due attention by the Attorney General’s Office, forcing him to seek outside help.

“I withdrew the bill to make changes subsequent to stakeholder consultation needed for it to be redrafted to accommodate those changes which would normally be by virtue of policy directives to the CPC to draft the bill. When I got back the draft which was to incorporate the changes that the legislative council set out it never reflected it and we went back to say it is inadequate; I went back again and nothing happened, and I am just got sick and tired of it,” Jackson said.

He said he then made the decision to seek assistance from a former chief parliamentary counsel to redraft the bill. “I’m not a minister so I’ve been left to swim on my own though I’m a member of parliament. The system has failed to support me in my role as MP,” he fumed.

The solicitor general could give any assurance, however, saying that her office would review the bill when the draft is completed. She explained that the current procedural framework only provides for work on legislation that is being pursued by the various ministries and agencies of government.

“That is an issue that Parliament itself would have to look at in terms of what is the nature of the framework that would be put in place when private member bills are being pursued; the situation that you have described is not one that is not one that is common [and] as far as I’m aware we are not able to accept work to be done outside of that structure but once legislation is to be passed it would be prudent for it to receive some assistance,” she stated.

Jackson, meanwhile, argued that he had personally delivered the request to the Attorney General’s Office. “I put it in her hand. I also put a copy of the same bill making the same request to the minister of justice. I put it in his hand myself, so it was delivered,” he insisted.

The permanent secretary, meanwhile, said she was aware of the request and had been “assured” that the matter was receiving attention. She, however, gave the undertaking to give special attention to the bill when it is ready.

Jackson has for years been very vocal on fees charged by financial institutions, with his protests about certain charges earlier this year prompting public outcry and forcing at least one major commercial bank to slash the fee it charges to encash cheques from other banks, down from the $1,300 being charged at the time. Another major institution also suspended charges applied to dormant local and foreign currency accounts.

“It is important that the country understands that the Parliament isn’t just sitting as Government and Opposition. Parliamentarians, in their own right, with their own energy and effort, are using this forum to defend and protect the interest of Jamaicans,” Jackson said during the debate on the bill.