A Constitutional and Governance Reform Proposal

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A critical issue for Barbados in this 50th year of our journey as an independent nation is the need for Constitutional and governance reform to make our political system less venal and more transparent and responsible, and to make our political representatives and leaders more accountable to us the people of Barbados.

If we – the citizens of Barbados – do not devise a set of Constitutional and governance reform proposals and mobilize a people’s campaign to secure their implementation, all the signs are there to suggest that we will eventually find ourselves with a Government that is so corrupt that it will be absolutely incapable of commanding any respect from the people it is supposed to be leading.

Indeed, we need to be extremely concerned about our political system becoming so venal and unaccountable that it results in our country suffering from a massive and illegitimate pilferage of public financial resources. I ,for one, am extremely concerned about the growing evidence of Barbadian citizens and taxpayers becoming legally obligated to make burdensome annual financial payments to the undeserving beneficiaries of outrageously privileged government contracts.

In other words, if we do not reform our system of governance, we will run the risk of political corruption bankrupting and sinking the nation of Barbados !

It is against this background therefore that I now propose the following set of demands for Constitutional and governance reform in our country:-

(1) Integrity and Anti-Corruption Legislation

Integrity legislation should be enacted, by virtue of which each Member of Parliament, Government Minister and Statutory Corporation chair-person would be required to make a full disclosure of his or her assets and liabilities at the commencement of his or her term of office, and to also be subjected to an audit of his or her assets and liabilities at the end of the term of office.

(2) A Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau

Barbados requires the establishment of a specialized investigatory and law enforcement agency that would be mandated to ensure that every dollar in Government revenue is properly accounted for and is not unlawfully siphoned off for the private gain of political functionaries and their associates.

I am therefore proposing that a new entity designated a “Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau” be established by statute and be protected and insulated by appropriate statutory regulations for the purpose of carrying out such a function.

The investigators attached to the Bureau should possess wide investigatory powers, including powers of arrest and search, and the power to investigate the bank accounts of suspected persons and their wives, children or agents. The Bureau should also be mandated to scrutinize every Government Minister and the Chairperson of every Statutory Corporation, and, where investigations have been instituted , to subpoena witnesses to be questioned.

Furthermore, the work of the Bureau should be facilitated by permitting the Law Courts of Barbados to treat proof that an accused person was living beyond his or her means or possessed property that his or her income could not explain , as corroborating evidence of corruption or bribe-taking.

(3) Financing Regulations for Politicians and Political Parties

Legislation should be enacted requiring politicians and political parties that receive financial donations in excess of $2,000 from any particular donor within a twelve month period to declare and report such donations to the ‘Electoral And Boundaries Commission”. These reported donations would then be registered by the Electoral and Boundaries Commission, and the Register of such financial donations would be open to scrutiny by the Press and members of the public. Of course, there would be a penalty for failure to report, inclusive of forfeiture of the un-reported donation.

(4) Anti-Vote Buying Regulations

The practice of willfully offering or exchanging money or objects of value for a vote or for the promise of a vote during a national Election should be explicitly and clearly made a criminal offense punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.

(5) A Contractor General

In order to counteract the corruption and bribery that is often associated with the awarding of government contracts, an office of “Contractor General” should be established as part of our structure of governance, and the holder of this office should be assigned Statutory responsibility for the integrity and efficiency of systems pertaining to the award of government contracts.

(6) Mandatory Reporting by Members of Parliament

All Members of Parliament should be obligated by law to hold quarterly public meetings with the residents of their constituency, in order to report on and be questioned about their performance as representative of the Constituency.

(7) People Power Reforms

We, the people of Barbados, should not be relegated to only expressing power once every five years! Rather, our Constitutional system should be reformed in order to give us certain interventionary powers which could be expressed at any time through such instruments as the Referendum, the Veto and the Popular Initiative.

Where the political parties in the House of Assembly introduce a Parliamentary Bill that members of the public take objection to, a certain percentage of the electorate should-- by collecting a stipulated number of signatures within a stipulated period of time-- be entitled to require that the Bill in question be put to a Referendum or a national vote of the people.

In addition, we Barbadians should have at our disposal an instrument known as the “Popular Initiative”that would permit a stipulated number of voters to submit their own proposals for legislation to the House of Assembly . The applicable regulations would stipulate the number of signatures that would be required to be attached to the legislative proposal and the period of time within which such signatures are to be gathered. And once these regulations are adhered to, the Government would be obligated to introduce an appropriate Bill into the House of Assembly in order that it might be considered by Parliament and voted upon.

The Veto would be an instrument that we citizens and voters could use to prevent a Governing Administration from enacting a Governmental Budget that imposes a dangerously large fiscal deficit on the country! I am suggesting that our Constitution should provide that where a governing Administration proposes to run a fiscal deficit that exceeds a stipulated percentage of the Gross Domestic Product – and that therefore constitutes a danger to the financial health of the country – that the approval of the populace would first have to be sought and obtained through a national Referendum. In other words, the citizens of the country should have the power to put a halt to the prospect of reckless government spending that is likely to cause serious financial destruction!

(8) Power of Recall

Our Constitution should also be amended to give the electorate the power to recall Members of Parliament who have manifestly lost the confidence and support of a significant majority of their constituents. Any such aggrieved Constituents should have the power to use a Petition to gather sufficient signatures to force the Government to stage a Recall Vote in the Constituency in question in order to determine whether their Member of Parliament should be removed from office.

These then are the types of Constitutional reforms that we require in order to put our governance house in order, and to provide a foundation of proper and accountable governance upon which we can build a new national economic development programme.

Let us all resolve to use this 50th anniversary year to do some serious thinking about the many ways in which our political system has decayed, and the steps that we need to take as citizens to rectify the situation and preserve our nation.

David Comissiong

President

Clement Payne Movement