GREAT BAY--Chairlady of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams is urging government ministries to make greater use of existing laws to issue fines, impose penalties and generate revenue, while warning that limited legal and administrative capacity could slow the government’s broader legislative agenda.
Speaking during the press conference that followed the official presentation of Budget 2027 to Parliament on Tuesday, Wescot-Williams said ministries should examine the laws already under their responsibility to determine whether there are revenue opportunities that are currently not being used.
“I think the ministries should, at this very moment, look at the laws that govern the ministries that could produce revenue,” Wescot-Williams said.
She said some potential revenue sources may have been left untapped because the necessary administrative systems are not yet in place to collect them.
“Many of these things are left out of the picture just because maybe the administration is not set up for the collection,” she said.
Wescot-Williams specifically pointed to administrative enforcement as a tool ministries could use more effectively.
She said the general law on administrative enforcement is already in place and can be applied within individual ministries, allowing them to act directly when people or businesses violate laws under their responsibility.
“I have encouraged that we use the administrative enforcement,” she said.
Wescot-Williams explained that this could allow ministries to issue fines and penalties directly rather than having every violation handled through the Prosecutor’s Office.
“You don’t have to go through the Prosecutor’s Office for fines, but the ministry itself can issue fines, can issue penalties for not sticking or staying within the laws that govern that ministry and the operations of that ministry,” she said.
She pointed to waste management and the cleanliness of the island as examples of areas where stronger administrative enforcement could be useful.
The Chairlady said the approach could strengthen both compliance and government’s ability to collect revenue, but cautioned that implementation depends on ministries having enough administrative and technical capacity.
“I know it requires capacity. And that’s one of the issues that the government is facing,” Wescot-Williams said.
She said government also needs to rethink how it recruits and retains the personnel needed to support its policy and legislative agenda.
“Clearly, in terms of getting capacity, we cannot continue to do it in the same way that government usually does it. We lose too many persons along the way where that is concerned,” she said.
Wescot-Williams identified legislative capacity as another major concern, particularly in light of the large number of draft laws and ordinances outlined during the opening of the 2026-2027 Parliamentary Year.
She noted that legislation cannot proceed to Parliament until it has been properly vetted by government’s Legal Affairs function.
“You heard all of the laws, the draft laws, the draft ordinances that the Governor referred to in the statement of the government,” she said. “However, realize that these cannot come out of the government unless they are vetted by the government’s Legal Affairs.”
She warned that the volume of proposed legislation could create a bottleneck if Legal Affairs does not have sufficient staffing to handle the workload.
Wescot-Williams said government will have to either find another way to have legislation properly vetted or strengthen the Legal Affairs office so it can process the number of draft laws expected to come forward.
“We need to make sure that it’s either we find another way to have these laws vetted before they can then proceed and eventually come to Parliament, or we try to see how we can staff that office to deal with the amount of products in terms of legislation that will be coming its way,” she said.
Her remarks connected two issues now facing government: making greater use of existing laws for enforcement and revenue collection, while ensuring the country has enough legal and administrative capacity to move new legislation through the system.
