Judges, Magistrates who fail to declare assets will be named

Jan 15, 2019 News

Several Judicial officers, including Judges and Magistrate, are said to be in breach of laws of the Integrity Commission.
Chairman of the Integrity Commission, Kumar Doraisami, told Kaieteur News that the Commission has been working to compose a list of the names of persons from the Judiciary that are yet to declare their assets in keeping with the laws of the Commission.
Doraisami explained that the Commission will publish the names of those persons as prescribed by the Integrity Act.
So far, the Integrity Commission Chairman said that the names of several top ranking Parliamentary officials including Ministers of Government has been released to the public for failing to declare their assets .
“We have been going through the list and publishing the names of public officials in the various categories.
“In this regard, the Commission has since identified persons from the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Revenue Authority, Audit Office of Guyana, the Guyana Forestry Commission and even the Bank of Guyana.
“Our next list will include names of persons from judiciary that have not adhered to our appeals to make the declarations.”
Though, he did not specify, Doraisami said that the list will likely comprise names of top judicial officers including Judges and Magistrates that are in contravention of the laws.
Over the weekend, the Commission released the names of 159 officials that did not make disclosures on the Official Gazette.
Among those named were Governor of Bank of Guyana, Dr. Gobind Ganga; Bank of Guyana Banking Manager, Joseph Lall; Audit Office (Ag) Director Audrey Badley; Audit Manager Claireann James, Audit Manager Rosamund Hall; Guyana Forestry Commission – Commissions Manager, Sonya Reece; Guyana Forestry Commission – Assistant Commissioner of Forests, Gavin Agard; and Corporate Secretary/Legal Officer Jacy Archibald.
According to the Integrity Commission Act, Part III – Financial Disclosure, Section 13, a person in public life, not being a member of the commission, is required to file a declaration with the commission.
The officials are mandated to file their declarations with the Commission on or before June 30, each year.

Chairman of the Integrity Commission, Kumar Doraisami

If a public officer fails, without reasonable cause, to file a declaration with the Commission within the specified time or files an incomplete or false declaration shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $20,000 and to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months or more than one year.
Similar penalties apply to public officers who fail to comply with a request made by the Commission, or a tribunal. Where the offence involves the non-disclosure, by the public officer of property, which should have been disclosed in the declaration, a Magistrate convicting the person shall order the public officer to make full disclosure of the property within a given time.
Failure to comply with the order of the Magistrate within a given time, the offence shall be deemed to be a continuing offence and the person shall be liable to a further fine of $10,000 for each day on which the offence continues.
As it relates to unaccounted wealth, the court will impose a fine equivalent to one and one half times the value of the property or pecuniary resource found to be in the possession of the public officer.
Every person in public life who receives a gift worth more than $10,000 must declare it to the Commission stating the name and address of the donor, the description and approximate value of such gift and whether, in the opinion of the recipient, the gift is a personal gift or a State gift.
Last year, Doraisami had warned that persons who fail to declare their assets and liabilities to the Commission, after their names were published, would see legal actions being taken against them.
This Commission has since published its fourth list. In 2018, the commission issued 1,400 declaration forms to the country’s public office holders. The Commission has however only received 430 declarations.

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