Political Reform Committee Chairman identifies concern areas

Chairman of the Political Reform Committee Dylan Vernon says although this is the committee’s first working meeting and they have yet to identify areas of priority, he believes there are several issues which will definitely be addressed.

Dylan Vernon, Chairman, Political Reform Committee

“We have a broad mandate: to look at the entire system. But I would suspect that there are four things that would be the general things we look at, under which all things would fall: how can we improve people’s participation in the system. Another one and this is one people are very concerned about is that of increasing accountability and transparency within the system. And another I think that will come up is the issue of de-centralization. How can we move power away from Cabinet? How can we decentralize power to the municipalities and more people? And of course a big part of all this will be the awareness and education about how the system works, what are the problems with it?”

Vernon says in a few weeks time the committee will be having a press conference to discuss the process the committee will be using and the major areas of focus. The fourteen member commission includes members from both political parties as well as trade unions, the Bar Association, the media, the council of churches and the business community. Four members of the committee were absent from today’s meeting.