Robert Hart, Parliamentary Reporter
OPPOSITION LEADER Bruce Golding yesterday said parliamentarians should seek a new approach to satisfying private sector demands that politicians sign a code of conduct.
He was speaking in Parliament during a debate on the adoption of a report on the establishment of an electoral commission.
The Opposition Leader said he supported Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's suggestion last week that the private sector-proposed document be developed from the code of conduct signed before the 2002 General Election.
Mr. Patterson had hinted at such a move while speaking on the matter in Parliament last Wednesday.
AMENDING EXISTING CODE
The Opposition Leader said, "Since we have not yet agreed on a document, we should take into account the suggestion made by the Prime Minister last week, that what we really ought to do is take a look at the existing code of conduct, to see whether we need to modify that or perhaps to expand it and put an addendum to it (and) have that process carried out by the political ombudsman."
Mr. Golding said the amended code of conduct should take into account the concerns expressed by the private sector organisations and that its signing should be done "under the auspices of the political ombudsman ... as an extension of what we have done in 2002".
PROTECTING PARLIAMENT
He stressed that the alternative approach might be the best option for protecting the integrity of Parliament, and warned that parliamentarians must be wary of setting a precedent where they might be called on to regularly sign other documents put forward by interest groups.
"I think it is better to have that document in a sense prepared and overseen by a statutory authority and it is for that sort of role and function that the political ombudsman was established," Mr. Golding said.
But the Opposition Leader also noted that Political Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair told him a day earlier that he had not been consulted before the document was drawn up by representatives of the private sector.
