KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Constitutional Reform Committee, which will play a key role in ensuring Jamaica’s smooth transition to a Republic, has now been constituted.
Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Marlene Malahoo Forte, said the work began on Wednesday.
“The committee has been established to assist us in the process, to provide advice and oversight as we move on the most comprehensive and impactful constitutional reform work to be undertaken in the life of independent Jamaica,” she said.
Malahoo Forte said the work would be done in three phases while noting that the focus will be on matters for which the electorate’s votes will be ultimately required to make the changes to the Constitution through the Constitutional amendment bills.
“We intend to transition Jamaica from a Constitutional monarchy to establish the Republic of Jamaica, within the Commonwealth, as a parliamentary republic with a non-executive president,” she noted.
The Minister said the work of the Committee will be assisted by a Secretariat, which is now being put together.
Meanwhile, Malahoo Forte informed that her Ministry had been mandated to supervise the Government’s legislation program in each Ministry.
The aim is to provide technical guidance and support, monitor the work program, and implement strategies to close gaps.
“We hope to accelerate the pace of legislative reform without compromising quality and ensuring that all steps in the process are taken and properly sequenced, and if any is to be taken out, we will certainly look at that to ensure that there is no unnecessary bureaucracy or duplication,” the Minister stated.
She added that the legislative review process needs to be revised with excessive delays, culminating in numerous pieces of legislation neither being amended, repealed, and replaced nor developed and subsequently passed in a timely way.
The lack of legal and policy officers with the required qualification and experience in the various ministries further exacerbates the situation. We see from our review that the churches create an overly ambitious legislative priority every year without sufficient regard for the steps needed and what can realistically be accomplished within the year,” Minister Malahoo Forte said.
She added that the Ministry had taken stock and will be reporting to Parliament her findings, with proposals for improvements.
and then 