Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday rejected public disclosure of his declarations to the Integrity Commission.
Speaking at his weekly press conference, Jagdeo questioned why he should make such a move when the government does not want to follow suit. He said that were he to make his filings public, all the attention will be placed on him. According to Jagdeo, while he has received harsh comments, President David Granger has been given a “free pass.”
Granger on Wednesday informed that has not yet submitted all his declarations to the commission but said that he is currently working to rectify this. “I have written to them. I have not submitted all of my declarations. They are taking some time but I am in touch with them and the commission has heard from me,” Granger told reporters when asked if he has filed a declaration. He would later say that he is concerned that some of his ministers have not complied even though it is the policy of the Cabinet.
“I make mine public and…all day the focus will be on mine…I believe we should make public everything,” Jagdeo said on Thursday.
The names of several opposition parliamentarians were included in the first list of public officials who did not file their declarations, which was published by the commission last November. According to Jagdeo, by now all of the PPP/C’s parliamentarians would have submitted their declarations.
The Integrity Commission requires certain categories of public officials to declare their assets and liabilities by June 30th of each year. Since the first list, six more have been published in the Official Gazette.
Jagdeo said that when he missed the deadline to declare by two or three weeks, it was made into a big deal. He said that he was surprised to later learn that the president himself is yet to submit. “But he gets a free pass,” he said.
Jagdeo contended that under the PPP/C government, declarations were filed, and he emphasised that this is not a policy of the Cabinet but rather the statutory responsibility of public officials.
When asked if he would support calls for the declarations of the opposition leader and president to be made public, he reminded that his party made an attempt to do so previously through a motion but this was voted down by the government. He recounted that the motion called for 10 years of tax payments for every Member of Parliament and 10 years of submissions to the Integrity Commission to be made public.
“So that reflected our position on the matter,” he said, adding “Why did they vote against making public all the declarations when people in Guyana would see all of what we owned and can call the commission if any false information is given.”
According to the Integrity Commission Act, each public official under subsection (I) or (2) “shall give full, true and complete particulars of the assets and liabilities as on the relevant date, and the income during a period of twelve months immediately prior to the relevant date, of the person filling the declaration (whether the assets were held by that person in his own name or in the name of any other person) and of the spouse and children of such person to the extent to which such person has knowledge of the same.”
The Act states that the Commission or the President, as the case may be, shall receive, examine and retain all declarations and documents filed with it or him under the Act; and make such enquiries as it or he considers necessary in order to verify or determine the accuracy of the financial affairs, as stated in the declarations of persons who are required to file declarations under the Act.
It states that those officials who fail to submit their declarations or submit declarations that are false or incomplete, 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.”
A recent letter in the Stabroek News by public relations consultant Kit Nascimento drew renewed attention to the issue and in response, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan admitted that he is among the non-compliant ministers. He had, however, said that he is unsure of his true liabilities to the sum of $82,068,617 and was awaiting some information from his bank in this regard.
There have since been calls for legal action to be taken against ministers and the other defaulters.
