By Robert Hart, Staff Reporter
Prime Minster P.J. Patterson making his contribution to the 2004/2005 Budget debate at Gordon House, downtown Kingston, yesterday.
- Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson yesterday announced the Government's intention to establish a new investigative body to work alongside the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in the ongoing fight against crime.
The new department would also investigate allegations made against the police.
Mr. Patterson made the disclosure while making his contribution to the 2004/2005 Budget debate at Gordon House, downtown Kingston.
He told House members and a large throng of spectators looking down from the crowded gallery, that the justice system was in need of modernisation to promote and ensure the protection of human rights.
"To address these challenges, we need to strengthen our investigative capacity," Mr. Patterson said.
"The national investigative body must be equipped with an appropriately qualified cadre of investigators with skills that include the investigation of crime scenes and the collecting and analysing of forensic evidence."
He pointed out that the authority would be vested with the required autonomy and that its mandate would include the independent investigation of alleged indiscretions of members of the security forces.
"The public will never be satisfied that the police can investigate itself vigorously and impartially," noted the Prime Minister.
Mr. Patterson said the body would also require the utilisation of resources now existing in separate national entities outside of the security forces. The body would be structured to provide public accountability reports to satisfy the need for transparency.
But Derrick Smith, Opposition Spokesman on national security, in a quick response yesterday, suggested that the new body could potentially spark conflict with the JCF. "I do not know enough about how it is intended to operate, but how he (the Prime Minister) presented it suggests a parallel police force," he told The Gleaner.
Mr. Smith also noted that the Prime Minister's comments on the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), were 'most pragmatic', but long overdue. "We (the Opposition) proposed this sometime ago. What he is really doing is now recognising what the Opposition called for years ago," he said.
Mr. Patterson, in a move possibly initiated by the recent controversies surrounding the Office of the DPP, indicated that the Government may be ready to re-examine the constitutional powers given to that prosecutorial body.
During his presentation, he noted that the DPP was currently subjected to the direction and control of no other person or authority. "His powers are extensive and no less than those vested by the American system of special prosecutors," the Prime Minister said.
ACCOUNTABILITY
He added: "In this age in which access to information is a key component of transparency, accountability and development, there is a question of whether the time has now come to revisit those constitutional arrangements."
Mr. Patterson also noted that he supported the view that "the Director (Kent Pantry Q.C.,) should be required to submit reports at timely intervals to Parliament on the work and performance of the department."
The Prime Minister also reiterated the promise that a new policy as it relates to the issuing of fire arms will be implemented this year. The new policy, he said, is intended to enhance transparency and reduce the potential for corruption in the issuing of licences.
He said: "Only persons who demonstrate a genuine need to be armed, only those who satisfy the competent authority that they meet specific fit and proper criteria, will be granted licences."
Mr. Smith however said that those criteria should have always been the 'yardstick' determining the granting of licences. "It is not the system. It is the integrity of the people involved," he stated.
