Reduce ministerial control over Radiation Safety & Security Laws – Bhulai

Feb 22, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – Prominent Guyanese Engineer and Energy Technologist, Alfred Bhulai is calling on the administration to revamp its political control embedded in the Radiation and Safety Security Bill of 2022.

Having unsuccessfully attempted to make contact with government or parliament officials, he has since written directly to the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, calling on the administration to relinquish its political control of the proposed body.

He identified as key for public consultations, namely that the Minister with responsibility for its enforcement must not be the person appointing the seven-member board and to select its chairman and deputy.

Bhulai was adamant that the Minister must not be the person to determine the remuneration and terms and conditions of the appointment of members and suggested that “Parliament should do that in a separate budget for the purpose.”

In relation to the appointment of suitably qualified inspectors, the engineer said that this should be done by the Board and not the Minister and “above all” the Minister should not be the person to determine the appeal against a decision of the Board since that “should be the remit of the Judiciary, which should be facilitated for urgency.”

As such, he was adamant that Ministers of Government should be answerable to citizens, through Parliament or public access and that “we do not want our Ministers to be otherwise occupied and fail in this duty; and we also do not want to provide the Minister the opportunity to give arbitrary decisions when a Board is to be constituted for such a purpose.”

Additionally, he proffered that “similarly, we should not want government employees to be on the Board, because we want access to our public servants; and we also fear they may not be truly independent of ministerial influence.”

In his missive to the Attorney General, he was quick to point out that there are other inefficiencies and unclarities in the Bill.

To this end, Bhulai was unwavering that a very important consideration is that the Bill should be redrafted to not have the potential to incriminate persons who discover, whether by investigation or otherwise, that public safety may be compromised.

“A sufficiently independent Board, as I am trying to encourage in this legislation, could be granted the power to hear whistleblowers on radiation safety and security, consistent with Part V of the Protected Disclosures Act of 2018, especially in the glaring absence of a Protected Disclosures Commission, for which no one has any penalty to pay.”

In his appeal to the Attorney General, Bhulai noted too that in the setting up of the Board, it should be enshrined that no member of the Board may be a government employee or member of a political party and that members should have passed at least at the CSEC level some subject containing the physics of radioactivity.

Additionally, he is calling for representatives of autonomous bodies to be agents not controlled by the autonomous body for the purposes of the business of the Board.

The Bill was tabled in the House, in April last and was subsequently referred to a Special Select Committee for further consideration.

The Bill that was presented to the House by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, is aimed at regulating the use of ionizing radiation and protects persons and the environment from the harmful effects of radioactive waste.

In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the Bill, it was noted that the proposed law “recognizes that the use of ionizing radiation can provide important benefits in many fields, including health and medicine, energy production, scientific research, agriculture, industry and education. However, it is also recognised that it is equally important to establish measures to protect individuals, society and the environment from the potentially harmful effects of ionizing radiation, including those that can result from improper use, accidents or malicious acts.”

With regard to the observation by Bhulai on the Board, it would be apposite to note that when presented it was intimated that the body to be established would be an “independent regulatory authority” mandated to work with relevant government agencies to ensure that activities and practices involving the uses of ionizing radiation and nuclear energy are used in Guyana for only peaceful purposes.

The Board shall, according to the present iteration of the proposed law, is to be made up of seven persons, appointed by the Minister of Health, from the Ministry of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Protection, and three persons qualified in any of the following areas – clinical oncology, radiology, petroleum engineering, occupational health and safety, national security and intelligence or public health.

According to the Bill, the life of the Board shall not exceed two years and it shall be responsible for assisting the government to develop policies and measures to regulate the use of ionizing radiation and nuclear energy, inspection of associated facilities and ensuring compliance with regulations, among other functions.

Bhulai is calling however, for those members to be in place for at least five years at a time, in order to allow continuity beyond the life of Governments.

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• Alfred Bhulai, energy, Engineer, Guyanese, Prominent

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