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ALICIA DUNKLEY, Observer staff reporter
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
PARLIAMENT yesterday passed a resolution giving permission to Dutch investigators to probe the $31-million donation to the previous People's National Party government by oil-trading firm Trafigura Beheer.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who had brought the resolution to the House seeking to affirm a Ministerial Order as the first of several steps to allow Dutch investigators into the island, earlier dismissed suggestions that giving leave to Dutch authorities to investigate the $31-million donation to the former government could open up the country to possible violation.
The suggestion was put forward by opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, Anthony Hylton.
Hylton said that the opposition was "not opposing simply to be obstructive" as it felt the matter required ventilation, but was concerned that "any widespread granting of authority to undertake that kind of investigation would have implications for the constitution.
".To give any blanket authority could have implications for our own domestic laws because the Dutch are seeking to enter the jurisdiction to undertake certain activities that are the prerogative of sovereign states," Hylton said.
"We have to be very clear that there are certain safeguards. The opposition at this time is saying whilst it understands the necessity for the Order, the scope of the Order and what is being granted has to be tailored so that safeguard measures are in place," the shadow minister said.
The opposition, Hylton said, needed to be comforted that what was being agreed to was not intended to facilitate a one-off arrangement but that there would be "a principled and schematic arrangement with the Dutch Government".
Golding, who had last week announced that the Dutch would be investigating Trafigura's donation, told the House that there a number of safeguards built into the Mutual Assistance Act which would guide the conduct of the investigations and which gave discretionary powers to the Director of Public Prosecution, the central authority named in the Act.
"We do feel that it is a matter which requires serious investigation. We thought it was significant that both Jamaica and the Netherlands are signatories to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, so there is no incompatibility between us or no incongruence in responding to the request for legal assistance," the prime minister said.
Golding last week told the House that the Dutch authorities had been seeking permission since February from the Jamaican government to undertake "official legal investigations into the Trafigura donation but were denied by the previous administration on the grounds that it did not fall under the necessary legislative arrangements
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
PARLIAMENT yesterday passed a resolution giving permission to Dutch investigators to probe the $31-million donation to the previous People's National Party government by oil-trading firm Trafigura Beheer.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who had brought the resolution to the House seeking to affirm a Ministerial Order as the first of several steps to allow Dutch investigators into the island, earlier dismissed suggestions that giving leave to Dutch authorities to investigate the $31-million donation to the former government could open up the country to possible violation.
The suggestion was put forward by opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, Anthony Hylton.
Hylton said that the opposition was "not opposing simply to be obstructive" as it felt the matter required ventilation, but was concerned that "any widespread granting of authority to undertake that kind of investigation would have implications for the constitution.
".To give any blanket authority could have implications for our own domestic laws because the Dutch are seeking to enter the jurisdiction to undertake certain activities that are the prerogative of sovereign states," Hylton said.
"We have to be very clear that there are certain safeguards. The opposition at this time is saying whilst it understands the necessity for the Order, the scope of the Order and what is being granted has to be tailored so that safeguard measures are in place," the shadow minister said.
The opposition, Hylton said, needed to be comforted that what was being agreed to was not intended to facilitate a one-off arrangement but that there would be "a principled and schematic arrangement with the Dutch Government".
Golding, who had last week announced that the Dutch would be investigating Trafigura's donation, told the House that there a number of safeguards built into the Mutual Assistance Act which would guide the conduct of the investigations and which gave discretionary powers to the Director of Public Prosecution, the central authority named in the Act.
"We do feel that it is a matter which requires serious investigation. We thought it was significant that both Jamaica and the Netherlands are signatories to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, so there is no incompatibility between us or no incongruence in responding to the request for legal assistance," the prime minister said.
Golding last week told the House that the Dutch authorities had been seeking permission since February from the Jamaican government to undertake "official legal investigations into the Trafigura donation but were denied by the previous administration on the grounds that it did not fall under the necessary legislative arrangements
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