For the government, it's critical that the constitutional amendment to install the Caribbean Court of Justice is passed at Friday's house meeting. That means meeting the opposition halfway on its demands on the issues of transparency, legislative debt ceilings and the limitation on privatization. As we reported on Friday, in a closed door meeting, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Attorney General agreed to some common ground on which they could move forward. The spirit of that meeting is contained in a draft document generated by the Solicitor General to be reviewed By Cabinet tomorrow and the UDP's Central Party Council and the shadow cabinet on Wednesday.
7NEWS has obtained a copy of that document and it shows a proposal to amend the finance and audit act to force government to go to the House of Representative before taking on any loan which is more than U.S. $5 million. It also proposes an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act forcing greater disclosure of secret contracts. And it also proposes to force government to bring to the House of Representatives any move to disclose of public assets valued at greater than U.S. $1 million.
It seems to offer great promise and an always pliable cabinet is expected to accede in tomorrow's meeting. But we can't say the same for Wednesday when UDP hardliners will argue that it does not go far enough and leaves much to be desired from the UDP's original proposals. Those issues will be decided by Wednesday at which point we'll know if the CCJ bill will have the three quarters majority it needs to be carried.