 Hello and welcome to Issues and Answers, I'm your host for today, Jacques Hengson I'm here with former Speaker of the House of Assembly and former President of the Senate, Dr. Hilda Rosemary Husband-Mathre. She is currently the Parliamentary Commissioner and today she's here with me to talk about the work of the Office of the Parliamentary Commission. Good day. Good day to you and thank you for your invitation to talk about the rule of the Parliamentary Commissioner. And thank you for being here. We have a lot to talk about. I'm sure a lot of people may not be familiar with the role of Parliamentary Commissioner. So let me ask by asking to explain what is the role of the Parliamentary Commissioner, what does he or she do? Okay, let me just start by a little understanding of who is the Parliamentary Commissioner. The Parliamentary Commissioner is an officer of the Parliament appointed by the Governor General, independent of government, independent of parties. The Parliamentary Commissioner is intended, expected to be an impartial investigator. What is the role of the Parliamentary Commissioner? The Parliamentary Commissioner receives and investigates complaints of the public, of citizens about any mal-administration act of government or any department, ministry, any institution that is funded by government. If the citizen feels that he or she has been aggrieved, has been badly treated and needs some sort of resolve or solution to the problem. You mentioned mal-administration. What sort of issues come up? When we talk about mal-administration acts, you can well imagine that with a big organization like government, one would think that there would be shortcomings, that there would be things that are done not necessarily deliberately, but actions of ministries, departments where people suffer some injustice. And so these sort of things, people come to the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner to complain. Listen, I feel that, for instance, government has now a development on a hillside and there are no drains. And I'm living at the bottom of the hill and I, etc., etc. Now, this is not something that probably is deliberate, but certainly a citizen is at a disadvantage. So the Parliamentary Commissioner would come to the Parliamentary Commissioner's office to investigate. So the Parliamentary Commissioner would, as I just said, would investigate and go to the relevant department, go visit the tight, see the problem, speak with the ministry, the relevant ministry involved, and see how we can solve the problem. The Parliamentary Commissioner's office is really meant to improve the workings of the public sector. It's not a job that's against the government at all. It's really meant to improve the efficiency of government. Can you talk about a little bit of the advantages of coming to a Parliamentary Commissioner? Well, I believe sometimes getting to the relevant ministry or department of government is not necessarily so very accessible. So sometimes one would find a citizen wanting to complain or talk about something and the minister is not accessible. Neither is the PS. Neither is the deputy PS. And the person who the desk would receive you is not equipped with the relevant skills to investigate. So a Parliamentary Commissioner is an ombudsman, I should say, ombudsman of the public service. That is the desk where citizens have a free service to come to someone who can attend to them and do that kind of contact with the relevant department or ministry and say, listen, we have to attend to this, we have to attend to that. And actually, when the Parliamentary Commissioner investigates, the following action is a recommendation, a recommendation to the relevant department. So I say recommendation because really that's what it is. And so if there is, for some reason, it's not attended to, the Parliamentary Commissioner can insist, can whatever, but it's really a recommendation to the relevant department. So the Office of the Parliamentary Commission itself has no power to make any changes? To make it happen, you know. We actually work with the relevant ministries to smooth out these little things that governments may have had no time to attend to, didn't realize these were the consequences, etc. So it's just a way to help government improve its efficiency in dealing with matters of public. I mean, if you look, if you read on anything about the ombudsman, as the desk is called, the ombudsman of the public service, you will see that it says it is to prevent and protect, I should say, protect civilian rights. Now this sounds like a very intimidating tone that I'm protecting rights. But in actual fact, and in actual fact, that's what I do. But one must recognize too that there is a limit to which I can attend. I can recommend, I understand your rights and I can recommend and see how I can work with the department to solve it. Now what is the process of actually making a complaint to the Parliamentary Commission office? Also, where are you located? How can I find you? Alright, where can you find me? The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner is in the Parliament building. It used to be the Treasury. Where the Treasury is, that is the office. The Treasury has moved to another location, that is the office. There's a big sign, Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner, and you walk in and there's no reason why you can't see me. I am always in office. So from Monday to Friday, office government, same government times, you walk in and to have a conversation with me. I was coming to say that I have times when I'm not in the office, if I'm investigating an office. So there are times when citizens have to wait for me. So they come in, the office attendant will say, the Parliamentary Commissioner is out for a while, can you come back at two o'clock? Because there are times I have to go beyond the office, out of town, into districts, etc., to do my work. So there are times when they eat at four, I'm not in office. But other than personally coming in, do you have another preferred way of reaching yourself or communicating with me? For example, do you prefer a written letter or an email? Actually, the law says that any complaints must be written. So people come into the office, if you cannot write, then you'll be assisted to fill out a complaint form. So the complaint form will ask your name, your bio-data, which ministry are you complaining about. And I have to tell you that by the time you come to the Parliamentary Commissioner's office, it's because you have tried to solve it and you cannot. So on the form will ask you information of how have you tried to solve the problem? Which organization have you spoken to? Who have you spoken to? Things like that. And so if I knew I've come and we document your complaint and I take it from there. I am in regular contact with the people who complain on the progress of what it is. So what else happens when a complaint is made? For example, how is the investigation conducted? Okay, so that is one of the things. The Parliamentary Commissioner's office investigates the facts. So you have told me that you have an issue with the Ministry of Education. I have to ascertain that in actual fact, your understanding of the issue has some merit. That there is really some measure of discrimination, etc. I have to establish that. And once I have done that, I need to go to the relevant authorities with the document so that we can have a discussion on this is the issue, how can we resolve it? We might talk about how did this happen? What caused that? What's our next step? How are we going to resolve that? Because I need to get to the complainant to say, listen, this is what I have done and sometimes, well, you probably don't have, didn't have a right understanding of what exactly the Ministry has done. And this is what the Ministry has done so that you can change your mind about the complaint. Or if indeed your complaint is valid, then what is our next step? Okay, sorry to cut you off, but we're due for a break and we'll pick it up right back where we left off. This is Issues and Answers. I'm Jacking St. Compton. We'll be right back after this. Pamela, I noticed that you built your retaining wall on my property. You'll have to give me my land back or compensate me for that. My contractor isn't dumb. I trust that he will not build anything on your property. Where is your proof? Let's go to court. This situation does not require you to go to court. Looks like we have to go through mediation here. Mediation is a way people resolve conflicts like this. Someone, a third party, comes to speak to both parties. This person is called the mediator. The mediator is impartial. He or she makes sure that communication between both parties is effective and efficient. So, the mediator is a judge? No, the mediator is not a judge. Mediators, unlike judges, do not decide cases or impose settlements. Let me get a mediator to handle this retaining wall and that kitchen. Kitchen? Yes, your kitchen also falls on my land. Let me call the mediator. Welcome back to Issues and Answers. I'm Jacking St. Compton, your host. And with me is Dr. Husband's Mathorette, Parliamentary Commissioner. Now, before we went to the break, you were talking about the investigation process. Yes, and I was saying that it's a process of one, establishing the fact and two, with the relevant ministry department trying to resolve the matter if indeed the complaint is valid. I want to say, too, that I do not investigate any matters regarding the police. Our constitution has a police complaints department, accommodates a complaint department. So, when someone comes to me regarding an issue with the police, my process is then to refer the matter to the complaints commission of the police department. The matter cannot be investigated if it is matters that are civil or criminal proceedings. I cannot investigate matters of siblings. There's an issue with two siblings quarrelling over land, or border disputes, etc. These are not matters. It's the ombudsman for the public sector. So, you don't deal with civil law matters? At all. The office does not deal with that. What we can and cannot do, there are a list of issues that we can and cannot do. But once it's a public service, my first part of call is to establish that the complaint is actually valid and factual. Do you ever have issues where, at least to the complainant's point of view, the issue has not been resolved? What happens then? I do have issues that have not been resolved for years. I've recently had a matter that I had to refer to the legal aid department, because my office is not equipped with such skills as a legal aid or legal adviser, etc. So, sometimes matters that have gone on for years and the parliamentary commissioner cannot resolve with the public service. So, take it to the legal aid. Could you talk a little bit about the history of the parliamentary commission? Could you talk a little bit about that? Where the position of a parliamentary commissioner has been in our constitution, the St. Lucia Constitution Order 1978, the position was not established until 1981, although I must say and confess that the enabling legislation didn't come into force until 1982. In 1981, we had Mr. Hunter Faswa, our first parliamentary commissioner, and he stayed in the post for 10 years. So, he was there from 1981 to 1991. Followed by Dame Laurence Laura, who came in 1995, followed by Mr. Selwyn Vincent, he had been the former Labour Commissioner. Unfortunately, he's on timely death while in office. And after him was appointed Mr. Madison Stanislas, followed by Mr. Johnson Snack, and here I am, your humble servant. Excellent. And I believe you mentioned privacy a while ago. Could you talk a little bit about how the matters that you deal with kept absolutely private? Absolutely confidential. There is no matter that will be public. The legislation, enabling legislation, makes it, I have to say impossible, but you cannot. Everybody who works in the parliamentary commissioner's office has taken an oath in front of the speaker of the house, and part of that oath is the secrecy of all documents, information that comes to this office. So, all matters handled by the parliamentary commissioner can never be public office. However, there is, if there is a matter that the parliamentary commissioner feels that needs to be tabled before parliament, then a special report can be written, tabled before parliament, and once it's tabled before parliament, then it becomes a public document. Now, you also mentioned a lot of interesting initiatives that you have for the future. Could you speak a little bit about that? I first want to say that I think the parliamentary commissioner's office is such an important office that I, one, I don't think it should be centrally in castries. There are issues around the island, and I believe we need to decentralize, and if we think of north, south, eastern, west, we would have an office in Vivott, an office in Dennery, an office in Souffre, so that matters of citizens in all areas should be attended to. That is one of the things. Right now, I think knowledge of the office or the role of the parliamentary commissioner is not well either understood or known. So I have taken an initiative to go to schools and talk about the roles, and this is why we are here today, because I think citizens must know that there is a forum where they can be heard. I think we need the understanding of, and actually there has been a case where a citizen felt that, with the OECS, that he had not been fairly treated as an OECS citizen. However, the legislation does not allow me to deal with OECS matters, with anything outside of the local central government. So there is not an ombudsman to deal with OECS matters. So there's another thing, I can't deal with regional matters at all. That's government to government. But certainly there are many opportunities to expand the office, and that is one of my things I'd like to see established, that we have offices other than just castries. We have had blind people come to my office from Dennery. I have had people in wheelchairs come to me, gentlemen in wheelchairs came to me from Vivott. And I think, I mean not only to accommodate the disabled, but just get citizens. This is a citizen's desk, and just get it accessible to everybody. The constitution says that the parliamentary commissioner can investigate complaints brought either by the senator, by government, parliamentarians, by citizens. And the parliamentary commissioner can also, over his or her own discretion, investigate matters of injustice that he or she sees. So I want to make this available in my work plan for the next couple of years. That is interesting. Well, this has indeed been an enlightening conversation. Thank you very much for coming to the GIS Studios for this episode of Issues and Answers. I am Jacques Kingston Compton. You've been watching Issues and Answers. I'm here with Dr. Rosemary Husband's Bathright, the parliamentary commission. I hope you enjoyed our show for today, and tune in to next time. .