The Gazette of the Disaster Risk Management Order No. 10 was posted on the website of the Ministry of Justice today (July 20, 2020). It contains measures announced by Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie in Parliament on July 14, 2020. The Gazette is dated July 15, 2020, although it was not available when I called Jamaica Printing Services on July 17 to ask if I could obtain a copy.
As of the time of posting my blog, the gazetted copy of the Order has been posted on the Ministry of Justice website, but not yet on the Office of the Prime Minister or Ministry of Health and Wellness websites.
The electronic copy of the Gazette of the most recent Disaster Risk Management (Enforcement Measures ) Order has now been posted on the websites of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Justice. This is Order No. 8. The hard copy was not yet available from the Jamaica Printing Services when I called this morning (June 19, 2020).
Order No. 8 is firmly dated June 15, 2020, though it obviously wasn’t gazetted on that date. On Tuesday night (June 16, 2020), Prime Minister Andrew Holness brought the draft order to the House for discussion, as has been his practice. No copies of the draft order were circulated to the Members of Parliament, which has been the recent practice.
During the discussion, Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte responded to a question that had been posed by an Opposition MP and her preface to her response makes clear that the Gazette of Order No. 8 was not available at the time.
All right, so the Disaster Risk Management Enforcement Measures Number 8 Order was promulgated by the Prime Minister last week taking, took effect on the 15th, which was yesterday. This is the non-gazetted, it is being gazetted and should be completed by now, but this is it. You will see a number of improvement, clarity. Right, I’m just telling you. So, it, the law does not require the Order to be laid in the House, but it’s going to be brought here.
– Attorney General Malahoo Forte, Parliament, 16-6-2020
Tracking when the Gazettes of the Covid-19 Orders become publicly available has really raised fo me the issue of the dating of the Gazettes containing these Orders, as the Gazette often carries a date prior to the date when it seems that the gazetting has actually taken place.
How is the date for the Gazette determined? Is it the date on which the measures are first broadcast by the Prime Minister, but not yet gazetted? Or the date on which measures come into effect, but not yet gazetted? Or when the final draft copy is sent for gazetting? Or when the Gazette is actually printed?
It is an obscure process, but can have some significant consequences. I will try to find out more.
I am also posting here a copy of an amendment that was made to the previous Order, Order No. 7. Just for completeness.
I continue to have concerns about the delay in the publishing of the Gazettes of the Disaster Risk Management (Enforcement Measures) Orders after measures have been announced at press briefings by Prime Minister Holness. On Sunday, May 31, 2020, the Prime Minister announced changes to the measures, some of which came into effect immediately and the following day. On Tuesday night, June 2, 2020, the Prime Minister made a presentation about the new measures in Parliament. The Prime Minister held another press briefing last night, at which he made reference to the gazetted order while talking about the measures. The Gazette of Order No. 7 – the written document containing all the details – although dated June 1, 2020 – only became available today, Saturday, June 6, 2020.
And a continuing concern is whether what is contained in the gazetted orders differs at all from what was previously announced by the Prime Minister.
This is a copy of the most recent Gazetted Covid-19-related order issued by the Government of Jamaica. It is Order No. 6, dated May 7, 2020 and was made available today (May 16, 2020). There is more to be said on all of this, but for the moment, here is the newly released Gazette. (Much thanks to the person who sent it to me!)
I have now got gazetted copies of what I think are all the COVID-19 related orders issued by the Jamaican government from March 13 – May 6, 2020. There is still no government website that has all the gazetted orders posted on it. I have posted them in chronological order below.
The Prime Minister announced the measures at a press briefing on Monday evening (April 20, 2020). The draft order was the subject of discussion in Parliament late into the night on Tuesday (April 21, 2020) and was subsequently gazetted. The gazetted order is dated April 21, which does raise the question of whether it was gazetted that night before midnight, or whether it was actually gazetted the following day (April 22) and back-dated. And whether that matters or not…
This is a link to the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica’s (PBCJ) recording of that sitting of Parliament. Prime Minister Holness’ statement regarding Order No. 4 begins at about 4:16:30 in the video.
The new order detailing additional measures to deal with COVID-19 in Jamaica first announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on April 14, 2020 has now been gazetted.
I have not yet found it posted on a government website, but when I do, I will share the link.
One thing of interest…although the order was only gazetted in the late hours of April 16 (or early hours of April 17?), it is back dated to April 14. Is that an acceptable practice?
The press release from the Office of the Prime Minister issued last night indicates the timeline for the gazetting.
Also, this gazetted order is Amendment No. 2 of Order No. 3, which was dated April 8, 2020. Was there a previous amendment to Order No, 3? If so, what was it?
During the discussion, Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte responded to a question that had been posed by an Opposition MP and her preface to her response makes clear that the Gazette of Order No. 8 was not available at the time.
