The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Attorney General yesterday pledged to end the VAT Act “nightmare” by consolidating all the past decade’s changes into a single law that will be reprinted this year.

Ryan Pinder KC said a Commissioner of Revision has been appointed to consolidate and reissue much-amended legislation, starting with the VAT Act. He described it as a “nightmare” for businesses to follow and comply due to multiple amendments that have been made annually for the past nine years.

“What law revision is, it’s a periodic review of all of your legislation with a mindset to consolidate and reissue Bills so they’re all consolidated, but also take a holistic approach at your entire legislative regime because some laws may be outdated. Some laws may not need to be on the books and to clean that up,” Mr Pinder said.

“Historically, we’ve never had a focused revision section and that’s why our laws are so choppy. I mean, you go through the VAT bill and amendments, it’s a disaster. You have amendments that add things, amendments that delete things that were added, amendments that were added again, and to follow it is a nightmare.

“We look to issue a reprint, we call it, because it’s not a revised edition. Revised edition is the whole compendium; reprint of the VAT legislation this year that will be a full certified consolidated element of that.”

Mr Pinder said the reprint of Bills will ensure Bahamians are aware of what laws apply to them and that attorneys can adequately advise their clients.

He added: “Our revision exercise is underway. We’re looking at a comprehensive approach. We just updated laws online last year, 18 months ago or so, with the 2017 revision exercise. That tells you how gappy your revision exercises in this country have been with respect to legislation.

“We want this to be a continuous process of revision to have clean laws so people can understand the laws that apply to them, so lawyers aren’t making mistakes advising their clients because it’s the clients that are put in jeopardy.”

Mr Pinder said criminal laws are next on the agenda for reprints and the Commissioner of Revision, Tina Roye, a ‘long-time’ legislative drafter and director of law reform has been appointed a team to complete the revisions.

He said: “Our next revision exercise for reprints are the criminal laws, because we want to ensure that especially when it comes to person’s due process and their personal rights, that the laws are clear and its application is clear.

“So, for the first time, we’ve appointed a commissioner of revision, and we’ve given her a dedicated team. And, interestingly enough, it’s not a dedicated team of lawyers. We have, for instance, a former English teacher, we have people who have excelled in grammar in school, because this is a reading comprehension and writing exercise and you don’t necessarily need lawyers.”