(RALEIGH) -- A legislative panel examining North Carolina's crime lab has recommended changes aimed at restoring public confidence in the lab's work.   The committee approved a number of proposals.

The recommendations include requiring lab workers to be certified, creating a special commission to advise the state Attorney General on the lab's science and procedures and requiring labs to disclose more testing results to defense attorneys. The legislative committee also narrowly rejected a proposal that would have made the SBI lab director report directly to the attorney general. 

Rep. Mickey Michaux said the proposals were a compromise between those who wanted an independent lab and those who did not want to see changes.  "The image of the lab has been tarnished.  There's no question about that.  There are people who are out there looking for something to happen and I think this is just a small move to restore that faith back into the lab," said Michaux.

SBI director Greg McLeod said the change was unnecessary in light of other steps the agency has taken to restore public confidence. "I don't believe that there's been sufficient dialogue and enough information for this commission to make a fully informed decision of this magnitude," said McLeod.

The recommendations come after an independent review revealed that SBI lab analysts used questionable practices in 190 criminal cases between 1987 and 2003.