As at the end of 2023, the Integrity Commission said, some 628 persons out of 1,580 had outstanding declarations and according to the law, the commission will publish the names of defaulters by the end of the first half of this year.
Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton will, for the first time, be eligible to submit and he said that he is ready and willing and has nothing to hide, even as he urged eligible party members and parliamentarians to swiftly comply. “I checked and was told that this year will be my first year of submission for the period last year and from April of the year before (2022) because that was when I was sworn in [as Leader of the Opposition]. So I am not a defaulter because I am waiting on the documents to make my submission and when I get those I will,” he said while explaining that he follows the law and will comply.
He said that as the submission of returns is an individual requirement, he can only advise his fellow parliamentarians to submit and is doing so because “they should as it is required by law that they comply”.
On the Integrity Commission’s website, the data for the years 2018 to 2023 is available and it states that out of the total “Inventorized Specific Persons in Public Life” for the year 2023, it had received 952 declarations while 628 are outstanding.
“By virtue of Section 19 of the Integrity Commission Act No. 20 of 1997, the Integrity Commission intends to publish a list of defaulters within the first half of 2024 in the official gazette and a local newspaper,” Secretary of the Integrity Commission Amanda Jaisingh told Stabroek News when contacted.
In May last year, the Integrity Commission issued a warning to public officers who had not submitted their 2022 declarations.
The commission had disclosed that notices were sent out to several specified public officers for failure to file their declarations.
At that time, 17 Members of Parliament were listed as delinquent, with 108 in ministries, 208 in the regions, and 493 in agencies and departments.
The body had stated that if those individuals had failed to submit their declaration forms on or before July 31, 2023, legal action would be taken and they would be liable to a fine of $25,000 together with six months jail time or not more than a year. It further stated that a fine of $10,000 per day would be handed out to the same individuals if they still failed to comply.
Then on August 12, the Integrity Commission served notice in the Official Gazette to 184 regional officials and councillors who had failed to submit their declarations for the 2022 period (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022).
The defaulters included Chairman of Region Five Vickchand Ramphal; Chairman of Region Seven Kenneth Williams; Chairman of Region Eight Headley Pio; Chairman of Region Nine Bryan Allicock; and Chairman of Region Ten Deron Adams, among others. There has been no formal word from the Integrity Commission on the status of these submissions.
On June 24, the body had issued a final and stern warning to former Leader of the Opposition Joseph Harmon, AFC Leader and Member of Parliament Khemraj Ramjattan, alongside a host of senior public servants stating that they were liable to fines and jail terms if they did not submit declarations by July 31.
A notice in the Official Gazette also listed the following former and current MPs as being in jeopardy of fines and jail terms: Dawn Hastings-Williams, Dr Nicolette Henry, Dr Karen Cummings, Sherod Duncan, Shurwayne Holder, Deonarine Ramsaroop, Vinceroy Jordan, and Devin Sears.
City Mayor Alfred Mentore and the mayors of Rose Hall, Anna Regina and Lethem were also among specified persons in public life who have failed to submit their returns to the Integrity Commission for the period July 1st, 2021 to June 30th, 2022 and they had been warned to do so by October 23rd or face prosecution.
The notice with names, published in the Official Gazette of September 23, 2023, had warned that those defaulters who failed to submit their 2022 declaration form on or before Monday, October 23 were liable to a fine of $25,000 along with six months imprisonment.
Section 22 of the 1997 Commission’s Act also provides a fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per day for those who further failed to submit their financial declaration as it is deemed a continuing offence.
Forty persons were listed in the notice, and they included the city’s Director of Solid Waste Management Walter Narine, former Head of Immigration and Support Services Carol Lewis Primo, former Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene, former Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle, former Chief Executive Officer of the Small Business Bureau Dr Lowell Porter and former GYEITI Coordinator Dr Rampadarat Jadoopat. Several employees of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board were also among the defaulters.
The Integrity Commission then reported that out of 1,587 financial declarations only 635 public officials have submitted their financial declarations for the period July 1, 2022 to June 30 2023.
