WITH the amount of proposed legislations to tackle corruption, there are growing concerns on the way constitutional accountability bodies will be able to function should the Anti-corruption Bill 2016 be enacted.

The concern was raised by the Leader of the Independent group Hon Dr Derek Sikua in the Bills and Legislation Committee (BLC) inquiry into the Ombudsman Bill 2016 this week.

Sikua made the comment in the presence of the Leadership Code Commission (LCC) Chairman, Solomon Kalu, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Ronald Bei Talasasa, and the Public Solicitor Office representative as witnesses.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North-East Guadalcanal highlighted this after listening to submissions made by the witnesses before the Bills and Legislation Committee (BLC).

Hon Dr Derek added that the Government of the day must be prepared to fork out resources to cater for the possibility of duplicated work and to avoid citizens being confused as to which institution to report certain issues to.

He further stated that should the Anti-corruption Bill 2016 be brought to Parliament and passed, the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) would certainly confuse citizens even more.

The SICAC will have the powers and function, according to the Bill, “to determine the appropriate action to take on conclusion of corruption investigations;

“to prosecute corruption offences with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions;

“to prevent corruption through its functions under Part 3;

“to direct the Director-General in the operation of the Commission;

And “any other powers and functions coffered on it by this or any other Act.”

Hon Dr Derek then stated that if all constitutional offices were to bring their own Bills in the near future, as was disclosed during the hearing this week, all would have to be aligned neatly to avoid stepping on each other’s toes.

Chairman of the LCC, Solomon Kalu, then added that this was what he was referring to when he said the definition of authorised officer in the Ombudsman Bill 2016 should not be restricted to allow the Ombudsman’s office to get people with expertise involved in investigations and information gathering.

This Kalu added, is what both the LCC and Ombudsman office have been doing to help aid their constitutional functions as both offices do not have all the expertise at their disposal to assist various issues before them.