SARA officials not yet obligated to make declarations to Integrity Commission

Jul 16, 2019 News

Officials of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) are not yet bound to submit declarations of their wealth to the Integrity Commission.

SARA is not a state agency whose officials have been placed on the schedule that is mandated to submit declarations of wealth.

This is because the entity has not yet been placed under in the Schedule 1 list of the Integrity Act which spells out which public officials have to declare their assets.
Last week, Chairman of the Integrity Commission, Kumar Doraisami, disclosed that SARA has not yet been included but moves are underway to correct the situation.
Under the laws, public officials, starting from the President, and inclusive of members of the National Assembly, Permanent Secretaries, Ombudsman, Director of Public Prosecution, senior police and army officials, judges and magistrates, and representatives from the various state arms and agencies, have to

SARA’s Eric Phillips

submit a declaration of their assets.
The idea is to determine what they entered office with and what they would have left with.
SARA was established in 2017 after a Coalition Government took office and signaled intentions to go after resources it believes would have been stolen from the state.
Recently, a debate has arisen over whether public servants and public officials can play a role in private companies.
A senior SARA official, Eric Phillips, reportedly had interests in two companies, including one which had applied for an offshore oil block.

Rawle lucas

Integrity Commission’s chairman, Kumar Doraisami

Another public official, Rawle Lucas, chairman of the Guyana Power and Light Inc., along with Phillips, was also part of a logistics company involved in the oil business.
There are scores of other cases like this. It is being debated now.
According to the Public Service Rules, persons who have interest in private companies have to seek permission first from their Permanent Secretaries and the Public Service Commission.
For public officials, like Phillips and Lucas, they may have to alert their boards of their interests.
Public officials, also to have to toe the line by reporting their interest to the Integrity Commission.
The Commission itself has been facing difficulties in getting public officials to comply with several hundred names of those who have not, published in the Official Gazette.

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