Edmond Campbell, Senior News Co-ordinator

ALMOST EIGHT years after Parliament created the Office of the Public Defender to protect and enforce human rights and provide a remedy for the infringement of those rights, the parliamentary Opposition says it is not satisfied with the present role of the Public Defender.

Noting that the appointment of a new Public Defender is imminent, as Howard Hamilton Q.C., is set to demit office this month, Opposition Spokesman on Justice, Delroy Chuck, is urging Parliament to separate the role of the Office of the Public Defender from that of the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Mr. Chuck, an attorney-a-t law, expressed the view that the Office of the Public Defender was preoccupied with administrative breaches and has ignored its role as defender of human rights and constitutional freedoms.

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

"The role of the Public Defender should be much more engaging, educational, reaching out to the ordinary citizens, informing them of their constitutional rights and freedoms, and readily available whenever these rights and freedoms are infringed," Chuck said. He was making his presentaton to the sectoral debate on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mr. Chuck wants the Office of the Public Defender to be renamed the Administra-tive Ombudsman with oversight responsibility for government agencies, specifically to ensure efficient and timely delivery of service. "Government agencies are monopolies and need an oversight body to assess their performance and to force them to become facilitators, instead of obstacles, in people's lives," he stressed.

The Opposition Spokesman on Justice also called for the setting up an administrative court to improve the administration of government. He said such a court would respond to malpractice, misfeasance, delays, incompetence and failure to achieve stipulated standards for the delivery of government service.