Notice has been served by Parliament Office that Prime Minister Sam Hinds will move a motion seeking to have the House ensure that Members of Parliament submit annual declarations in keeping with the provisions of the Integrity Act of 1997.
Hinds, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, also wants the House to call on President Donald Ramotar to disclose the name of defaulting MPs to the Speaker of the National Assembly and for the defaulters to be sanctioned by Parliament’s Committee of Privileges.
The PPP/C and the PNCR – the main constituent in APNU – have skirmished for a number of years over the Integrity Commission and the requirement for MPs to submit annual declarations. The PNCR had de-recognised the Integrity Commission because of concerns over how its former Chairman had been selected. The party and civil society had also argued that the Integrity Commission was not properly resourced or staffed to undertake its responsibilities. Further, there were concerns that the requirement for the submission of the annual returns could be used to target opposition MPs while the government MPs escape scrutiny.
Since there still isn’t a chairman who has the confidence of both the government and the opposition, debate on this motion whenever it comes up in Parliament will likely focus on how to select the new chairman and what measures will be put in place to ensure that the commission operates impartially and professionally.
Hinds’ motion notes that Section 19 of the Act empowers the Commission and the President to publish the names of persons who are not in compliance with this Act in the Official Gazette and in a daily newspaper.
The resolve clause of the motion urges that the House recognizes the lawful and legal obligation of Members of Parliament to submit annual declarations and that it calls on all Members of the National Assembly to submit their declarations in accordance with the law.
The motion further wants the House to declare that failure or refusal of Members of Parliament to submit declarations is a contravention of the law and a “gross indictment of those Members of Parliament and vicariously on the integrity of Parliament”.
The House is also to be called upon to conduct an annual voluntary monitoring exercise of compliance by Members of Parliament. The PM also wants the House to implore the President to disclose to the Speaker annually the names of those Members of Parliament in default and that “persistent defaulters should be sanctioned by this House according to established norms of ethics and brought before the Committee of Privileges.”
