And while one hand taketh away, the other giveth - not with money, but with legislative reform. The Briceno Government also introduce today the first piece of good governance legislation that they have committed to in their negotiations and consultations with the Joint Unions.
The general public knows it as the whistleblower's legislation, but officially, it has been tabled in the House as the Protected Disclosures Bill of 2021. Among other things, this bill seeks to protect whistleblowers from any sort of punishment for calling out improper or corrupt behavior from public officers or elected officials. Here's what the Ministry of the Public Service had to say when he introduced the bill in the House:
Hon. Henry Charles Usher- Representative for Fort George
"I rise to introduce a bill for an Act to combat corruption and other wrong doings by encouraging and facilitating disclosure of improper conduct in the public and private sector, to protect persons making those disclosures from detrimental action. To regulate the receiving, investigating or otherwise dealing with disclosures of improper conduct and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental there to. The protected disclosures Bill 2021 is more popularly referred to as the Whistle Blower's Bill and it is part of Government's good governance legislation. I need to first acknowledge and express gratitude to the Attorney General and her staff for the incredible work being done and for drafting this Bill in record time. A copy of this Bill was presented to the joint union team. And they were supposed to respond by May 18th in writing but they have not done so. We are proceeding nonetheless. It seems that for some people they are more interested in talking or maybe they are reserving their comments for when it goes to the House Committee. Another piece of legislation madam speaker that was prepared in record time is the Civil Asset Recovery and Unexplained Wealth Bill. This Bill was also shared with the unions and they were supposed to provide their comments by June 8th. Out of respect for the agreed to timeline this Bill is not being introduced as yet. But it shows you once again Government's firm commitment to good governance."
The bill is currently under further revision by the House's Public Service and Labour Committee.
