Today Business Senator Mark Lizarraga marched with the Teachers Union against the government, but yesterday his Chamber of Commerce sent out a press release saluting the Government for committing to sign the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on December ninth. The Chamber has no problem with 2-month roadmap, since it will allow the Government time to properly prepare for the commitments which come with it.
That's one of the 8 good governance demands that the teachers went on strike for, and from listening to today's speeches, it appears that the teachers aren't satisfied that the Prime Minister will actually sign it. They say that he once promised to appoint the 13th Senator, but then he did not bring that law into effect. Today we asked the Business Senator to comment on the split in sentiments:
Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"There was a committee from the chamber set up to work with the government on looking on the road map of the things that we need to accomplish. For example, there are many pieces of legislation that will need to be enacted. So I can understand why we cannot fully commit to that as now but we can commit to the process and I'm not the expert on this so please excuse me, the chamber has been running with this. As I understood, many countries have signed on and then through a period of time they accede and then they ratify and things like that. I am sure that perhaps some reassurance in writings, some legislations can be passed to say that we are committed to this specific process even though the legislation will follow. I don't see the difficulty really in the government making some sort of binding commitment to this process. The chamber has clearly said that it supports all the issues of accountability and good governance that are on the agenda today. I think there is no doubt, I don't see why the 13th senator can't be signed into a law today. I don't see why the integrity commission can't move on that rapidly. I think the chamber has in fact indicated that it has found some persons that might be willing to sit on it. I think that there are things that can be put in to place, the re-composition of the public accounts committee, those are things that can be done now. Now I understand and I will have to concur with my colleagues at the chamber that perhaps there's legislation that needs to be enacted for the UNCAC. so I can understand where perhaps that cannot be fully put into place today, but I am saying that as a good faith measure the government should pass some piece of legislation or sign something that's un-revocable to say 'look we are definitely committing to this'. Many people are saying that they can in fact sign on to it and then comply as time goes by."
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