Home  News Regional News PM unveils proposals for constitution
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PM unveils proposals for constitution |
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 |
PORT OF SPAIN - Prime Minister Patrick Manning says a working document prepared by a group of academics and politicians has outlined new approaches to governance in the oil-rich republic and it could form the basis for public consultations in the near future.
Emphasizing that the document was not the making of his administration, Manning told supporters, "I want nobody to say tomorrow, ‘Manning is proposing’."
He told supporters that a common thread running through the entire document was the principle of accountability.
"Everybody must be accountable. One of the biggest mistakes we could make is to allow certain people to feel that they are above the law, that they are independent.
"Everybody has to be accountable to somebody because the one thing the PNM knows is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Nobody must have absolute power," he said.
The working document proposes a presidential system of government, rather than an executive president, with ministers being advisers to the president.
There is a role for collective decision-making by a Cabinet that will be enshrined in the constitution, with Manning saying the composition could include persons outside of the Parliament. The document recommends a maximum of six members of Parliament to serve in the Cabinet with the bulk of the members coming from outside.
"One of the advantages of this is that it frees members of Parliament to participate in a committee system that can provide proper oversight to government activities," Manning said, noting that there would be five oversight committees.
The document also proposes that the President would address Parliament twice a year on the state of the country and that his address would be a subject of parliamentary debate. The Finance Minister would present a budget and all government departments would be accountable to a parliamentary committee.
Regarding the judiciary, Manning said the document proposes the establishment of a Ministry of Justice and while the document insists on the independence of the judiciary, the administrative functions would be a matter for the Executive and carried out under the normal public service arrangements.
Manning added that the document proposes that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) be entirely independent in dealing with criminal matters, but on the issues of terrorism, official secrets and state-to-state relations, the DPP must have the prior approval of the attorney general before he acts.
The Prime Minister said on the issue of Caribbean integration, the working document suggests that the government would need a special majority in Parliament in order to integrate with any Caribbean state.
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