Since the former chairman of the Integrity Commission (IC) resigned two years and two months ago there has been no replacement, and the commission remains in limbo as the three remaining commissioners have not met as a body to deal with issues that should have been brought before it.
Meanwhile, PNCR Chief Whip Lance Carberry has said that the PNCR still does not recognize the current commission as it was appointed “in contravention of that law” that brought the commission into being.
Carberry added that, “The Integrity Commission has to be re-constituted since its functioning or non-functioning is being used as part of the government’s propaganda machinery to do whatever it wants.”
He said that the President and the government were satisfied that there was no functioning commission in place so that the executive could use it as part of its propaganda machinery to control and micro-manage every entity possible. “Where they cannot micro-manage, they subvert,” he said adding that the Integrity Commission was being used in that way.
Meantime, the commission’s secretariat continues to function on a daily basis even with the number of staff being down to a minimum and its main task at present being the collection of statements of income and assets from senior public officials and members of parliament (MPs).
Stabroek News has learnt that since the former chairman’s resignation the commission has not met because of the lack of a quorum.
Asked why after two years President Bharrat Jagdeo has not appointed a chairman to replace Anglican Bishop Randolph George who resigned in April 2008, one senior Office of the President official, who asked not to be named, referred this newspaper to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who could not be reached.
In January this year, when Jagdeo was asked about the status of the Integrity Commission he had admitted to Bishop George resigning but did not address the appointment of another chairman except to say that the commission should publish the names of those who failed to submit their statements of income and assets.
Though he did not address the state of the body, he had said the main opposition PNCR was not pleased with the re-appointment of Bishop George and the bishop had since resigned from the post. He had said that if the opposition wants to be the champions of good governance and fight corruption their test was in adhering to the laws and submitting declarations to the Integrity Commission.
Asked whether the PNCR’s position has changed given the resignation of Bishop George, Carberry told Stabroek News that in the first place the PNCR never objected to having an Integrity Commission. The party, he said, has objected to the breach of the constitutional provisions in the re-appointment of commissioners by the President and that position has not changed.
The commission came into being as a result of the Integrity Commission Act, 1997, Act No 20 and was assented to by then President Samuel Hinds. The first set of commissioners was appointed in 1999 by former president Mrs Janet Jagan and the commissioners re-appointed by Jagdeo in 2004 without prior consultation with Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin.
In May 2005 Corbin took legal action to nullify the appointment of the Chairman and members of the commission, arguing that the President did not consult him, and the appointments were made arbitrarily and unconstitutionally as they were in breach of the constitutional provision that provides for the leader of the opposition “to express a considered opinion on the appointment of the Chairman and members of the Integrity Commission.”
Section 3 (4) of the Integrity Commission Act 1997 stipulates that the “Chairman and other members shall be appointed by the President after consultation with the Minority Leader.”
The remaining members of the commission are President of the Central Islamic Organisa-tion of Guyana, Fazeel Ferouz; Secretary of the Guyana Council of Churches, Nigel Hazel; and Director of the National Commission for Family, Pandit Rabindranauth Persaud.