GOV’T REFUTED CLAIMS OF WITHDRAWING ANTI-CORRUPTION BILL 2016
Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Photo credit: SICR
The Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has repudiated Island Sun’s headline news claiming the Democratic Coalition for Change (DCC) Government has ‘withdrawn’ the Anti-Corruption Bill 2016.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Press Secretariat says it is important for the media to understand the due Parliament process that once a bill is set down in the Order Paper, it can never be withdrawn.
Rather, it is the tabling of a bill that can be deferred.
It adds the Anti-corruption Bill 2016 has not been withdrawn as erroneously and misleadingly suggested by Island Sun headline news.
Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet explains, it is the bill’s proposed tabling this week that have been deferred to a later day which will be decided by the government in due course.
The statement says Prime Minister Hon. Manasseh Sogavare acknowledges the overwhelming public support for the bill and assures that the government is working to ensure the bill gets through Parliament after being tabled.