Defaulters who fail to submit declarations will face the court

Jul 30, 2020 News

– Integrity Commission Chair

Five months after the Integrity Commission published a list with the names of 25 Members of Parliament and 52 Officials who failed to declare their assets for the period, 1 July, 2018 to 30 June, 2019, the Chair of the Integrity Commission, Kumar Doraisami says that the defaulters will be prosecuted, since they are obligated to make a declaration to the commission when required.

Chair of the Integrity Commission, Kumar Doraisami

When Kaieteur News contacted Doraisami to follow up on whether everyone on the list had since submitted declarations, he responded, “Not all of the defaulters had complied.” He mentioned that he cannot release the names of the defaulters. While Doraisami did not state if there will be a new publication of the list of defaulters, he added that the list will be revisited sometime after today.
The original list was publicized on January 25, 2020, via the Official Gazette noting that as of January 24, 2020 over seventy-four persons in public life failed to submit their declaration for the period July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019.
Heading the published list of names were: Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams; Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan; Minister of Social Cohesion With Responsibilities For Culture, Youth and Sport, George Norton; Minister of Public Service, Tabitha Sarrabo- Haley; Minister of Communities Annette Ferguson; Minister within the Ministry of Presidency with the responsibility for Youth, Simona Broomes; and Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture with responsibility for Rural Affairs, Valerie Adams-Yearwood.
Former MPs Jennifer Wade, Rajcoomarie Bancroft, John Adams, Richard Allen, Mervyn Williams, Michael Carrington, Jermaine Figueira, Audwin Rutherford, Barbara Patricia Pilgrim, Donna Mathoo, Reynard Ward and Dr. Rupert Roopnarine were also named, as well as Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, and Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs. The list also includes a number of employees from various government agencies and ministries.
According to the Integrity Commission Act, anyone who fails to make a declaration without reasonable cause shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars and to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than one year.
Section 2, Chapter 22 states, “Any person who—(a) (i) fails, without reasonable cause, to file with the Commission or the President, as the case may be, a declaration which he is required to file in accordance with the provisions of this Act; or(ii)knowingly files with the Commission or the President a declaration that is not complete or is false in any material particular; or (b) fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with a request made under section 18 or 21 (2) by the Commission, the President or a tribunal, within the time specified there for by the Commission, the President or the tribunal, as the case may be, or gives incomplete or false information pursuant to the request.”
The Act goes on to say that anyone failing to furnish information as requested:
“Shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars and to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than one year, and where the offence involves the non-disclosure, by the declarant, of property, which should have been disclosed in the declaration, the magistrate convicting the person shall order the person to make full disclosure of the property within a given time and on failure to comply with the order of the magistrate within the given time, the said offence shall be deemed to be a continuing offence and the person shall be liable to a further fine of ten thousand dollars for each day on which the offence continues.”