Jagdeo not legal authority to demand declarations

Jan 25, 2009 News

…says AFC leader, who will not comply

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Raphael Trotman, said yesterday that AFC Members of Parliament are not responding to President Bharrat Jadgeo’s call for them to make their submissions to the Integrity Commission within two weeks.

President Bharrat Jagdeo

According to Trotman, the AFC does not recognise President Jagdeo as the legal authority to do so.
He added that the AFC is waiting for the Integrity Commission to contact them directly before making their submissions.
Trotman noted that the members of AFC have always made declarations of their assets to the Commission.
Traditionally, he added, the Commission would write to them attaching the form they needed to fill out to the letter, and they would respond accordingly.
Trotman contends that this new procedure of the President is against what has been happening in the past.
“We can’t understand why all of a sudden the commission has failed to send the letter,” he said.
He stated that the AFC does not have a problem with submitting, but they need to know that the Commission is functioning properly, is not under the control of the President, and that the information submitted remains confidential and is not used for political or other purposes.
Meanwhile, Mr Robert Corbin, Leader of the main opposition party, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), said that that party has instructed its Members of Parliament not to make submissions to the Integrity Commission until the court determines the legality in the setting up of the Commission.

AFC Leader Raphael Trotman

Corbin mounted a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Commission in May 2005, but the matter has not had a hearing. In the absence of this, Corbin said, his party’s Members of Parliament have been told to make sure their documents are in order, but not to submit them until a determination of the case.
On Monday last, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that, within two weeks, he would instruct the Commission to publish the names of all Members of Parliament who have not made declarations of their assets. Those who have not made declarations would be prosecuted, the President said.
The Integrity Commission Act stipulates that if a person fails to make a declaration of their incomes and assets to the Commission, the Commission or the President should publish this in the Gazette and in a daily newspaper.