GOVERNOR RANKIN EXTENDS THE COI FOR SIX MONTHS
Written by Fuze Social Team on July 15, 2021
Governor John Rankin has agreed to a six-month extension to the Commission of Inquiry (COI). In a statement today, Governor Rankin said the decision follows a request from Sir Gary asking for an extension.
Governor Rankin said in a statement that Sir Gary was initially required to produce his findings from the COI by July 19, however the Commissioner was clear in his statement on June 2nd that the time allocated would be insufficient and that he would be requesting an extension. With this new extension, the COI will not conclude till January 2022 — an entire year after the COI was commissioned. According to the Governor, the government and its Inquiry Response Unit (IRU), which the Attorney General’s Chambers set up to help provide responses to all the COI’s requests for information, (IRU) is part of the reason for the extension.
The statement from the Governor said that the COI is looking into a substantial amount of information … Sir Geoffery Cox on behalf of the Attorney General clearly set out the challenges the IRU faces in providing documentation and these issues have created delay in the progress of the COI. Governor Rankin said that the current COVID-19 outbreak, the curfew order, and the encouragement to stay at home makes all of their current ways of working difficult.
