Caribbean Times 2nd Issue - Tuesday 21st February 2017

2 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Tuesday 21st February 2017
Senate amends Proceeds of Crime Bill 2017
By Joanna Paris
The Upper House of
Parliament last make made
amendments o the Proceeds
of Crime Bill 2017, which
was passed in the Lower
House a week earlier.
The Proceeds of Crime
Act provides for the establishment
of a Proceeds of
Crime Fund into which the
proceeds from a confiscation
order or forfeiture order can
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be paid and distributed to
the agencies involved in the
fight of crime or for public
education.
While outlining the bill,
the Leader of Government
Business in the Senate, Lennox
Weston, voiced a number
of concerns as it related
to the use of the balance of
the fund.
He expressed the view
that the monies should be
used wisely for the overall
development of the country.
“I don’t think that it
makes much sense just to
divide the money here and
there. For such a small country
as hours, you cannot just
be dividing up money like
that.
“There is no way that I
will be in the Ministry of Finance
and we have millions
of dollars to spend properly
and I will be like Santa
Clause. No body spends
money that way”, he said
sternly.
In a rare occasion, Senate
Minority Leader, Harold
Lovell, echoed similar sentiments.
He indicated that the
Consolidate Fund was created
to hold monies belonging
to Central Government.
He noted that the proceeds
should be under the control
of the Ministry of Finance.
“I do not support this
bill. I think it takes us in
the wrong direction Madam
Speaker and I have not seen
one like this before”, Senator
Lovell established.
During the committee
stage, the Senate agreed to
make the amendment indicating
that after the required
payments from the proceeds
of crime have been met, the
balance should be placed in
the Consolidated Fund.
PM addresses CARICOM First Ladies
In his first engagement of the 28th Inter-Sessional
Meeting of CARICOM Heads
of Government, PM Gaston Browne addressed
a Forum of CARICOM First Ladies
and Spouses of CARICOM Heads of Government
in Georgetown, Guyana.
Present at the Forum were the First Ladies/Spouses
of Guyana, Belize, Jamaica,
Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti who began
a two-day meeting aimed at identifying and
addressing issues that present particular
challenges to women in the Caribbean.
Speaking at the Forum, PM Browne
looked at the issues at the top of the meeting’s
agenda, including domestic violence,
teenage pregnancy, cervical cancer, motherto-child
transmission of HIV/AIDS and trafficking
in persons.
He commended the first Ladies/Spouses
on their action, which seeks to implement
the ‘Every Caribbean Woman, Every Caribbean
Child’ initiative.
‘The women of the Caribbean have more
than shown their worth, especially in the
fields of small-business entrepreneurship
and social responsibility,’ Mr. Browne said,
‘and I consider it the duty of every Government
in the Caribbean to give the ECWECC
Initiative its full support.’
The Prime Minister went on to outline
some of the initiatives taken by his Government
to support entrepreneurial activity by
young women including the establishment
of a venture capital fund available to young
women who are in need of seed-money to
establish or expand a small business.
He pointed out that the UN Sustainable
Development Goals Agenda 2030, to which
all the CARICOM members were committed,
would be impossible to implement without
the full integration of women into the
economy and society on an equitable basis.
Also present at the Forum were a number
of international organizations and agencies
such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and the Pan-American health
Organization (PAHO), examining ways in
which technical and administrative support
could be given to the Initiative.
As the only Head of Government present,
PM Browne had the responsibility to report
to the plenary on the outcome of the Forum
and to recommend that CARICOM provide
its full support.