By OBAKENG MAJE
The Ad Hoc Committee on the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill today received a summary of the public participation report and adopted it. The committee also received responses from the State Security Agency (SSA) on the report and legal advice from the Parliamentary Legal Services on the report and responses from SSA.
The Chairperson of Ad Committee on the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, Kenneth Mmoiemang said the public participation report noted that an overwhelming majority of inputs supported the Bill. Mmoiemang said even where recommendations were made for further improvements, these stakeholders did not reject the Bill on these grounds.
‘The report also cites the concerns raised during the public participation process. The committee noted SSA’s responses to the public participation report. SSA also noted several of the proposals made and indicated that it will be guided by the committee on these matters.
“These proposals include the appointment of the Deputy Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI), biannual meetings between the JSCI and the President on intelligence-related matters, the alignment of the JSCI’s annual reporting with parliamentary reporting requirements, as well as the appointment of the Deputy Inspector-General of Intelligence,” he said.
Mmoiemang further said SSA informed the committee that the Bill adopted by the National Assembly provided safeguards to protect constitutionally entrenched rights in respect of bulk interception. He added that SSA informed the committee that it proposes retaining the sections currently in the Bill as approved by the National Assembly in relation to the monitoring of foreign signals/bulk interception.
“SSA does not support the proposal to establish a national security media advisory as it believes the existing laws provide sufficiently for this matter. SSA also believes the powers of the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI) should be aligned to the criminal justice system or to those of the accounting officers in case of misconduct.
“SSA also responded on matters of security competency assessments, insufficient measures against fund misuse, insufficient penalty provisions, location of services, whistle-blower protection and the role of the President,” said Mmoiemang.
He said the committee also received legal advice on the public participation report and responses from SSA. Mmoiemang said the legal advice noted the majority of the responses and made a few proposals for the committee’s consideration.
“The legal advisor added proposals on the powers of the IGI, the powers of the Intelligence Coordinator, the establishment of the national security media advisory, security competency tests, and the insufficient measures against fund misuse.
“The committee will now commence with clause-by-clause deliberations on the Bill and consider and adopt the C-list version of the Bill,” he said.
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