THE GOVERNMENT is to set up a broad-based commission to study the issue of state-funding for political parties.
Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Burchell Whiteman, announced in the Upper House last Friday that the task force will be set up within the first quarter of the new financial year, which begins April 1.
Mr. Whiteman was responding to questions posed by Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe last year, seeking to find out whether the Government would move on a resolution calling for such a commission.
Last July, the Senate approved the resolution which was brought to the Upper House by Professor Munroe, who was then an Independent Senator. The resolution highlighted the threat to the island's democracy posed by private interests which seek to influence politicians through donations.
Speaking to The Gleaner late last year, Mr. Whiteman said: "An important issue in moving the discussions forward involved working through the formula of having parties account for the money that is donated to them."
During the recent general election, the governing People's National Party (PNP) reportedly spent about $300 million on its campaign, while the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is said to have spent about half that amount.
Professor Munroe has argued that ways have to be found to give political parties greater support even while demanding from them, greater accountability in the conduct of their affairs.
Both major parties say the bulk of their funding comes from corporate donors, and that the money is channelled into the central party organisation. But it is at the constituency level, where candidates have to substantially fend for themselves, that there are the greatest concerns that 'big money' might be holding politicians hostage.
Speaking at The Gleaner's Editors' Forum at the newspaper's North Street offices, last year, Prime Minister Patterson indicated that his Government would aim to have the issue of state funding properly aired and resolved.
He cautioned, however, that state funding for political parties would be a hard sell to the Jamaican people, especially in a context where there were several competing areas such as health and education which were short of funds.
"But, I think, also, one has to take into account the risks that are inherent in the preservation and enhancement of the democratic process when one is as dependent, as political parties now are, on seeking funding entirely from private sources," the Prime Minister said then.
