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Commissioners & Lawyers should PAY for their Stupidities
Emil George is a fool, a failure & an embarrassment as the so called head of this Commission..... giving lawyers & witnesses too much leeway to block the truth and obfuscate
EDITORIAL - Coke Lawyers Should Donate Pay To Charity
Published: Thursday | March 31, 20110
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told Parliament what everyone already knew - that the bill for the commission of enquiry into the Christopher Coke extradition affair will be higher than the J$37 million that was originally budgeted.
Indeed, it could be more than twice that amount, although Mr Golding stressed that the final bill "cannot be determined until (the enquiry) is concluded".
The major chunk of the budget is to cover the fees of the three commissioners and the various lawyers who have respresented the public officials at the hearings, excluding those for Mr Golding and the two poltical parties.
The juniors, the prime minister reported, bill at the equivalent of US$250 per hour, the same as the two ordinary commissioners, while senior counsel get the same rate - US$350 an hour - as the commission's chairman, Mr Emil George.
The fact that the taxpayers will face a much bigger bill than expected is due in no small measure to Mr George's effete leadership of the commission, particularly in the earlier days, and the great effort to which attorneys have gone in helping their clients to 'stonewall and stalemate' the attempts at arriving at the truth. In the circumstances, it was inevitable that the hearings would be prolonged and that the billing clocks would keep running.
Against this backdrop, we have a suggestion for commissioners George, Anthony Irons and Donald Scharschmidt and those lawyers being paid out of the public purse.
They were orignally given a time period to complete their task: job work, to put it crudely. They didn't. Moreover, there is little public confidence that the commission will be able to fulfil the mandate set out in its terms of reference.
Our proposal, therefore, is that the publicly paid lawyers and the commissioners donate to charity all earnings above what they would have made if the life of the commission had not been extended.
Additionally, should the commission fail to answer with clarity and conclusiveness the issues that this newspaper stripped down for it on Monday, the commissioners and those lawyers who will bill taxpayers should contribute another 20 per cent of their fees to charitable causes. The others, at their discretion, might contribute to the pool.
Should the commissioners and the lawyers agree to our proposal, of which we contemplate no difficulty, this newspaper is prepared to manage a competition for charities wishing to share in the pool. We propose that eligible charities would be those promoting tansparency and integrity in the public sphere, operating projects for dispute resolutions and/or education and training in inner-city communities.
We look forward to the commission's response.
EDITORIAL - Coke Lawyers Should Donate Pay To Charity
Published: Thursday | March 31, 20110
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told Parliament what everyone already knew - that the bill for the commission of enquiry into the Christopher Coke extradition affair will be higher than the J$37 million that was originally budgeted.
Indeed, it could be more than twice that amount, although Mr Golding stressed that the final bill "cannot be determined until (the enquiry) is concluded".
The major chunk of the budget is to cover the fees of the three commissioners and the various lawyers who have respresented the public officials at the hearings, excluding those for Mr Golding and the two poltical parties.
The juniors, the prime minister reported, bill at the equivalent of US$250 per hour, the same as the two ordinary commissioners, while senior counsel get the same rate - US$350 an hour - as the commission's chairman, Mr Emil George.
The fact that the taxpayers will face a much bigger bill than expected is due in no small measure to Mr George's effete leadership of the commission, particularly in the earlier days, and the great effort to which attorneys have gone in helping their clients to 'stonewall and stalemate' the attempts at arriving at the truth. In the circumstances, it was inevitable that the hearings would be prolonged and that the billing clocks would keep running.
Against this backdrop, we have a suggestion for commissioners George, Anthony Irons and Donald Scharschmidt and those lawyers being paid out of the public purse.
They were orignally given a time period to complete their task: job work, to put it crudely. They didn't. Moreover, there is little public confidence that the commission will be able to fulfil the mandate set out in its terms of reference.
Our proposal, therefore, is that the publicly paid lawyers and the commissioners donate to charity all earnings above what they would have made if the life of the commission had not been extended.
Additionally, should the commission fail to answer with clarity and conclusiveness the issues that this newspaper stripped down for it on Monday, the commissioners and those lawyers who will bill taxpayers should contribute another 20 per cent of their fees to charitable causes. The others, at their discretion, might contribute to the pool.
Should the commissioners and the lawyers agree to our proposal, of which we contemplate no difficulty, this newspaper is prepared to manage a competition for charities wishing to share in the pool. We propose that eligible charities would be those promoting tansparency and integrity in the public sphere, operating projects for dispute resolutions and/or education and training in inner-city communities.
We look forward to the commission's response.
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