I knew trouble was brewing last week, when Emil George, Chairman of the Manatt/ Coke Commission of Enquiry, extended the Enquiry's end date to May 16.
This is the third extension.
[The Commission, which was slated to end on February 29, had its end date extended to March 31, in order to accommodate testimony from all public officials involved in the Manatt/Coke affair, including the Prime Minister (PM) Bruce Golding].
The combined extensions mean that a Commission that should have cost Jamaican tax payers JMD $37 million has now skyrocket to JMD $78 million!
We now hear that the Jamaican tax payer is to foot this extended bill..that is the legal fees for the Commissioners and for all lawyers representing all public servants who testified at the Commission.
(The PM will be paying his legal fees himself).
...and to add insult to injury, the PM said the $78 million may not be the final cost, as lawyers for public servants, are yet to submit their bills.
Now Jamaicans need to take a hard look at this Commission and assess whether or not we're getting value for money:
Every time a lawyer (his/her team) representing a public servant at the Commission, has to do any work related to it...money leaks out of taxpayers' pockets.
So, yes folks, while the lawyers are there listening to and rebutting arguments of PNP lead attorneys -Messers. Knight and Atkinson, their legal fees' cash registers go "cah ching ching" (Jamaican, meaning "more incoming money")!
Even if they have to sit at the Commission and listen to arguments being presented, whilst their client is not on the witness stand...their legal fees' cash registers go "cah ching ching"!
[The hourly rate for Senior Counsel (QCs) is US $350/hour (JMD $29,437/hour) and Junior Counsel US $250/hour (JMD $21,026.5 /hour)].
So, Jamaicans should seriously be considering the following questions:
1) Should Commissioners be given a free-hand at extending the Commission's end date, knowing full well that these extra hours mean a further burden to the Jamaican tax payer?
2) Is the Commission being conducted efficiently and effectively? Why couldn't the scheduling of this Commission have been thoroughly thought out, so that we wouldn't have had to have two (2) extensions?
Will Commissioners be doing their summation by hand or will they be using technology to speed up this process?
[I notice the Commissioners taking notes by hand...is it that none of them are comfortable enough to use laptops/Tablet PCs for this process? - usage of which, would aid greatly in the efficiency of the note-taking and summation processes?]
3) Should lawyers representing public servants, be allowed to drag out their Examination in Chief of said public servants...knowing full well that these extra hours mean an additional burden to the Jamaican tax payer?
[E.g. Dr. Lloyd Barnett questioned his client, Minister Dorothy Lightbourne, for 2.5 hours, whilst Frank Phipps QC, took all of 45 minutes (albeit over 2 days) to ask in summary form, what it took Dr. Barnett 2.5 hours to do!]
4) Should K.D. Knight QC and Patrick Atkinson QC (who represent the PNP and Peter Phillips, respectively), be allowed to drag out the cross examination of public servants at the Enquiry, seeing that unnecessary grandstanding and arguments resulting from this process, mean further extensions and hence an increased burden to the Jamaican tax payer?
5) What will really come out of this Commission...will anyone be held accountable (be fired, fined, prosecuted) or will this Commission just let those culpable in the Manatt/Coke affair, get off with a slap on the wrist?
6) In light of the burgeoning legal fees resulting from this Commission:
a) Should lawyers be allowed to grandstand and not efficiently examine/cross-examine witnesses?
b) Is the Commission just a grand, stage show for lawyers to get free advertisement for new clients?
The above are serious questions that we need to ask ourselves, as Jamaicans.
For if there is to be a second Commission of Enquiry, as requested by the Public Defender, to investigate the reasons behind the 73 deaths from the West Kingston incursion, as a result of the Coke extradition request, can tax payers afford to have another Commission that will not lead to dismissal, prosecution, conviction, or the levying of fines?
Jamaicans really do need to look deeper into this Commission and not just take it at face value - for whilst we're being thoroughly entertained by this day-time soap opera, the legal fees' cash registers are going "cah ching ching"...whilst we as Jamaicans are getting poorer, with each passing day of this Commission.
...it's a lot to think about, isn't it?
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Television Jamaica, February 18 - March 29,2011
2) CVM Television, February 18 - March 29,2011
