PHOTO CAPTION: front - Mrs Ruby Thoma, Chairperson, Nauru Constitutional Review Commission;
back row from left to right: Dr Guy Powles, Commissioner; Mr Winnie Tsitsi, Assistant to
Commission; Mr Leo Keke, Commissioner.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY: Katy Le Roy, legal adviser to the Commission and UNDP consultant.
Amendments to address accountability
By Dionisia Tabureguci
THE people of Nauru are in sight of an amended Constitution, one that promises to be more responsive to their needs, safeguard their resources and financial welfare and oblige public office holders to be more accountable and transparent.
In what has been described as an “important milestone for Nauru and its people and a great opportunity for Nauru to strengthen its Constitution in a democratic manner”, Nauruans went to the polls last month to elect 18 people to serve on a 36-member Constitutional Convention. Nauru’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional Review (CRC) will appoint the other 18 members.
The task of this Convention will be to debate the findings and recommendations of the island country’s Independent Commission on Constitutional Review, a three-member team appointed last year by the CRC to undertake an independent assessment of Nauru’s 39-year-old Constitution. The Commission was also tasked to make recommendations based on public views that had resulted from last year’s call for public submissions.
“The Convention will start deliberations on Monday 23 April and will sit for approximately six weeks, to debate the recommendations contained in the Commission’s Report,” Commission’s legal adviser and constitutional lawyer Katy Le Roy said.
The Independent Commission was chaired by Ruby Thoma, historically Nauru’s only woman Parliamentarian, while other Commissioners included Nauru lawyer Leo Keke and Pacific constitutional law specialist Dr Guy Powles.
Upon the release in late March of the Commission’s report, Thoma said the Commission was of the belief that it had been able to come up with recommendations for amendment “that address the concerns of the people of Nauru about past abuse of public funds and lack of government accountability” and that if adopted, the changes would “result in a significant improvement in the way the institutions of government operate.”
“The Commission has examined all the views that were expressed at the forty public consultation meetings held last year and all the written submissions received by the Commission. The clear message from the public is that they have lost trust in their public institutions and they expect much greater accountability. The recommendations that we have made reflect that and suggest a way forward,” Thoma said.
Nauruans called for a constitution review in 2004 amid increasing public concerns about the way the Rene Harris government was using public funds.
This led to public outrage and massive protests on the island, led by the then opposition members of Parliament who are now incumbent members of the Ludwig Scotty Government.
“When we took over in 2004, there was basically no financial system in place, the Treasury had not produced accounts for years and the public had no knowledge of where the money had all gone. It was extremely alarming,” said David Adeang, Nauru’s Minister for Finance and Foreign Affairs.
Dr Kieren Keke, Nauru’s Minister for Health, Sports and Transport and who introduced the Bill that created the Standing Committee to review the Constitution in 2004, said: “the people of Nauru had repeatedly called for a review of the Constitution and the government has responded.”
Present day Nauru and its group of revolutionary leaders emerged from a recent history peppered with doubtful dealings by the previous government, which had seen the near collapse of the island country’s Phosphate Royalties Trust (NPRT), stripped it of a number of prime assets and drove the national state of affairs to the edge. Where Nauruans were once the world’s richest people by per capita basis, the rationalisation by the Scotty government in 2004 saw Nauru’s public servants, including President Scotty, receiving standard wages of A$140 a fortnight.
Now on a much firmer keel and well into the high seas of its economic and structural reforms as set out by the Scotty government’s 20 year National Sustainable Development Strategy, Nauru plans to set sail back to the waters of prosperity guided by an amended Constitution.
The formation of the Constitution Convention is a part of phase four of Nauru’s six-phased review process.
Any decision made by the Convention will be submitted to Parliament at around June.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Among recommendations in the Independent Review Commission’s report and which will be debated by the Convention are:
• that Nauru should have a popularly elected President, rather than a President elected by Parliament,
• that the Speaker should be someone who is not a member of Parliament, to avoid deadlocks that have plagued Nauru
in the past,
• the abolition of appeals to the High Court of Australia and the provision for an appellate division of the Supreme Court of Nauru,
• the establishment of a Public Service Commission,
• that the Director of Audit be made an independent officer of Parliament
• a number of amendments to the finance provisions of the Constitution including strict requirements to account for all public revenue and expenditure
• the introduction of a leadership code and office of ombudsman
NOTE: This article was published in the Islands Business Magazine (www.islandsbusiness.com) as article titled: NEW CONSTITUTION TO ADDRESS ACCOUNTABILITY, p.31, May 2007 edition.
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