In our June 26, 2007 article, BU alluded to the important role which the Director of Public Prosecutors (DPP) must play to ensure that the scales of justice remain balanced in Barbados. Over the last 48 hours, Barbados Free Press published an article which highlighted the role the DPP office allegedly played in an ongoing court matter which involves a defendant by the name of Ronja Juman and the Plaintiff, Betcliff Inc., a company owned by the DPP and his wife. BU apologizes to the party who sent us the information to publish. We just had too many things happening to respond as promptly as Barbados Free Press did!
The role of the DPP is a very interesting one. It is recognized and protected under the Constitution of Barbados in a way which gives the occupant tremendous influence within the judicial system. The following information is extracted from The Constitution of Barbados, Section 101 and 105.
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The DPP is appointed by the Governor General, acting on the recommendation of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission
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The DPP can be removed from office only if the incumbent is unable to discharge functions of his office (arising from infirmity of body or mind or any other cause) or for mis-behaviour
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The DPP can only be removed from office by the Governor General if the matter is transferred to a tribunal appointed under Section 105 of the Constitution of Barbados. If the tribunal recommends removal then :-
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The Governor General will appoint a tribunal which shall consist of a Chairman and not less than two other members, selected by the Governor General acting under the advice of the Chief Justice from among attorneys-at-law who have practiced for not less than 10 years and from among persons who hold or have held the office of judge of a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in the Commonwealth, or a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any court
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The tribunal after its investigation should submit its report to the Governor General with its recommendation on whether the DPP should be removed
There is the misguided notion in Barbados that prominent people appointed or elected to certain positions should not be placed under the microscope, or held accountable for their performance and or mis-behavior. It is interesting to note that in Barbados BU cannot recall any significant holders of positions appointed by the Governor General being dismissed. It is time Barbadians understand that our passive approach to not place key officers in our government and civil society under the microscope is a recipe for encouraging under-performance or mis-behavior.
I hope you learned your lesson. Procrastination is the thief of time.
I have sent you an important email. Act on it within the next 24 hours or the file will disappear!
Anonymous~your email went to spam. We will get back to you!
I find that this blog is too cautious. Having important information and sitting down on it a-la Nation newspaper. And the news was not broken by the BFP it was by another bajan blog.
http://justicebmine.wordpress.com/
Both BFP and Justicebmine blogs are now offline.
Transparency International 2007 listings:-
Guyana still seen as corrupt. 2.6
“For regional countries, Barbados scored 6.9 out of 10 (highest in Caricom), St Lucia 6.8, Suriname and Brazil 3.5, Trinidad and Grenada 3.4, Jamaica 3.3, Dominican Republic and Belize 3.0. The only Caricom country that ranked below Guyana was Haiti at 177.”
Stabroek News
For a PDF copy of Transparency International’s 2007 listings:-
http://transparency.org/content/download/23974/358242
9.48 a.m.
“Anonymous~your email went to spam. We will get back to you!”
Do you always work at this snail pace?
It is now 8.06 p.m.
I will put up the file for another 24 hours.
I have sent you an email with the url for the file. Don’t let the spam filters catch it again. The url will disappear after 24 hours agin.
BU
Have you seen the latest article by BFP ?
That is,Gov’t doing secret interceptions of e-mail,phone calls etc.
What do you make of it?
We have seen the article on BFP and sometime one has to be willing to put it on the line if there is a just cause. We feel that what we are doing is necessary to safeguard our freedoms. If our government feels that in 2007 it should feel threaten by a blog then we say let the chips fall down whereever.
We shall not be moved.
Hear,Hear David.
I don’t know you,but you and the people at BFP have my full support.
Best regards
How is action against a mis-behaving DPP initiated? Who do we complain to in the first place, directly to the Governor General?
Evidence in the Ronja J affair stacked against the DPP is compelling. Lets work against this going under the carpet.
What’s up BU?
I miss my Sunday spread.
Are you coming with something hot?
From the theifing prime minister down and up need to be brought up on corruption charges,leacock sent back to guyana where he is from and all other bajan politrickcians need some jail time “SERIOUSLY” we the people of Barbados need a new party that is for the people not for the cocaine millionaires on the west coast and the land grabbers with their big cheque books,the time for change is coming..soon come.