Cybercrime, Whistleblower legislation for next Parliamentary session - AG

Cybercrime, Whistleblower legislation for next Parliamentary session – AG

Sep 15, 2016 News

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, has said that the Cybercrime Bill will be among the legislative pieces set to be addressed at the next parliamentary session.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams

The Minister was at the time responding to questions from the media operatives at a press briefing at the Ministry of Legal Affairs Carmichael Street office, yesterday.
According to Minister Williams, the Whistleblower, Witness Protection, and Tobacco Bills are also on the agenda to be addressed.
“We will also be holding consultations on the Whistleblower and Witness Protection Bills in this quarter coming up,” the Minister said.
He expressed optimism that the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) Bill should be finished in time for the last quarter of the Parliamentary session.
The Cybercrime Bill of 2016 was presented and read for the first time in the National Assembly last month. Attorney General Williams had referred the complex legislation to a Special Select Committee, so that it can be properly perused and amendments can be made where necessary.
The Bill seeks to combat cybercrime by creating offences related to it and provide for penalties, investigation and prosecution of the offences and related matters, was gazetted in September last year.
It is Government’s intent to make it an offence for persons to illegally access a computer, illegally intercepting and causing data interference, illegally acquiring data and causing system interference, and using illegal devices.
The Bill sets out that a person commits an offence if he intentionally, without authorization or in excess of authorization, or by infringing any security measure, accesses a computer system or any part of a computer system of another person.
The draft legislation also deals with child pornography and child luring. It says that a person who produces child pornography for the purpose of distribution through a computer system, or offers or makes available, distributes or transmits child pornography through a computer system, commits an offence.
It is being proposed that any person with illegal access to a computer system for the purposes of securing access to computer data commits an offence and faces a $3M fine and three years’ jail.
Meanwhile, the Witness Protection Bill 2015 is expected to pave the way for the establishment of a programme for the protection of witnesses who would give evidence in the courts of Guyana. The legislation will ensure protection of witnesses and their families against intimidation and/or physical harm during and after their involvement in the proceedings of a case.
The measures to be enacted will include the establishment of state houses, the granting of assistance to participants and the provision of new identities where necessary.
Similarly, the Whistleblower legislation is set to protect a person who informs the public or those in authority about dishonest or illegal activities /misconduct occurring in a government department, private company or organization. That misconduct may be in violation of laws, regulations, direct threat to public interest; fraud and corruption.