FINE tuning of the second 2014 Draft Federal Constitution is being done this year based on the former draft.

This was confirmed to Island Sun by the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC) Policy Secretary of Fundamental Reforms, Warren Paia.

“Once the last Draft has been finalized at the end of May (next month), it will be produced as a public document, and a copy will be handed to Prime Minister Sogavare.

“It is interesting to note that the PM who initiated the task 10 years ago will again be responsible for receiving the Draft for further action.

“At present, the work being done is to fine-tune the 2nd 2014 DFC, as well as the first two Drafts done this year, based on the former,” Mr Warren Paia said.

He then added that once these are finally fine-tuned, a new Draft Federal Constitution will be produced.

“It would probably be called the 3rd 2017 Draft Federal Constitution, the 1st and 2nd Drafts for 2017 having been improved one after the other in the last three months,” the Policy Secretary added.

Mr Paia then further stated that in both the second 2014 DFC and the ones they are now working on, overseas Constitutional experts have been assisting the CC and the EPAC.

Their job is to review the contents of the DFCs, make suggestions for improvements, identify critical issues to address, polish the language in the document and ensure that the Constitution meets international expectations.

Mr Warren Paia assured the paper that it is the Government that found and has been contracting the Expert using its own resources.

He then added that both the CC and EPAC will have done their service to the nation come mid-June, being the scheduled time for the hand-over of the final DFC to the Government of the day.

The two bodies will then cease to exist.

“However, the Constitutional Reform Unit (CRU), within the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is likely to remain with perhaps an internal Committee to monitor the implementation of the DFC,” Mr Paia said.