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MPs among 81% of public officers who fail to declare assets

Oct 05, 2018 News

…deadline extended before legal action takes effect

The newly installed Integrity Commission has started its work and has written to public officers, including Members of Parliament (MPs) to have them declare their assets.
The Commission’s Chairman, Kumar Doraisami, disclosed yesterday, at a press conference, that 1296 letters were sent to public officers who are mandated to file their declarations with the Commission on or before June 30, each year.
To date, the Commission has received 248 responses and according to Doraisami only some MPs have responded. The response rate thus far is 19%.
“If somebody doesn’t send in their declaration forms we will have to publish their names in the official Gazette and a daily newspaper. That will force them somehow to do so. The public will know that they are not actually complying with the Act.
“If they [then] fail to do that we will have to move to lay charges because they have to comply with the Act,” Doraisami stated.
He said that the Commission has extended the deadline to October to provide officers with more time to make their declarations.
The Commission sent 69 letters to Parliament; 407 to Government Ministries; 242 to regional administrators; and 576 to Government agencies, among others.
Before the establishment of the current Commission, there was hardly anyone complying with the Act. The Commission disclosed that roughly 20 persons filed in previous years with about six filings last year.
Doraisami pointed out that there are legal arguments as to whether or not filings should have been done in previous years as there was no active Commission, staff nor office set up.
Under the law, any public officer who fails to comply with the Commission is liable upon summary conviction, to a fine of $25,000 and to imprisonment for a period of not less than six months or more than one year.
Public officers including the President, Permanent Secretaries, Director of Public Prosecutions, Auditor General, Commissioner of Police, the Army Chief, Heads of the Service Commissions, Foreign Affairs officials, Judges and Magistrates and Department Heads are required to declare their assets.
Also required to submit declaration forms of their earnings and gifts received are Regional Executive Officers, the Chief Elections Officer, Mayors, Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of state companies, Registrars of Lands and the Commissioner-General of Guyana Revenue Authority, along with Presidential Advisors, and Heads of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and Guyana Forestry Commission.
The Integrity Commission (Amendment of the Code of Conduct) Order 2017 has since been published in the Gazette and addresses, frontally, matters relating to discrimination, bribes, conflict of interest, handling of classified information, use of public property and sexual misconduct, among others.
The Commission was given new life when the members were appointed following consultations between President David Granger and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo.
However, the Commission temporarily shared office space with the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) before moving, recently, to its new location at Church Road and Fifth Avenue, Subryanville.

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