, which steeply cuts down on the power of the commission’s chairperson.
By assigning responsibilities and functions to the board members, the lawmakers are elevating them from their mere supervisory roles to being involved in the daily running of the commission, which many fear would create a bureaucratic snag in the commission’s functioning.Aside from assigning responsibilities to board members, whom the bill seeks to rechristen as commissioners, the bill also tries to strip the chairman of the power over “administrative order”.
It also means that, even when the commission’s chairman is fully involved, he has to subject some expedient administrative functions to the bureaucratic decision of the board.Furthermore, the bill seeks to amend section 70 of the existing Act by transferring the power to make rules from the chairman to the Commission.
He added that his organisation and several other civil service organisations recommended improving the commission, but not by giving operational control to political appointees, whose influence may be tainted by political considerations. Section 3 of the Act provides that the board of ICPC must include; a retired police officer not below the rank of commissioner of police; a legal practitioner with at least ten years post-call experience; a retired judge of a superior court of record; a retired public servant not below the rank of a Director; a woman; a youth not being less than 21 or more than 30 years of age at the time of his or her appointment and a chartered accountant.
“A board shall not be involved directly in the day-to-day management of a parastatal or agency,” he said in his speech. Adding that “a board must only operate on a part-time basis.”