Prime Minister Sam Hinds is re-tabling a motion to have the National Assembly ensure that Members of Parliament submit annual declarations, in keeping with the requirements of the Integrity Act.
Hinds, who is 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, according to a notice served by Parliament Office on Friday.
The governing party PPP/C and the PNCR – the main constituent in main opposition coalition APNU – have in recent years been at odds over the Integrity Commission and the requirement for MPs to submit annual declarations. There were also concerns that the Commission was not properly resourced or staffed to undertake its responsibilities and that the move to get MPs to declare assets could be used to target opposition MPs while the government MPs escaped scrutiny.
The government and opposition previously clashed over the issue after then-president Bharrat Jagdeo issued an ultimatum to MPs in 2009 to submit their declarations of assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission or face criminal charges. The opposition parties, however, criticised the constitutionality of the commission and called for it to be reconstituted.
Jagdeo subsequently announced that consultations would start towards resuscitating the commission. The Constitution requires that the President should have “meaningful consultations” with the Leader of the Opposition before appointing the members of the Commission. Although three members, Fazeel Ferouz, Savitri Sukhai and Nigel Hazel, were later sworn-in, there has been little progress in identifying a Chair for the Integrity Commission since Bishop Randolph George resigned from the post in April 2006.
Since there still is no chairperson, when debate on Hinds’ motion comes up it will likely focus on how to identify a candidate to fill the post and what measures will be put in place to ensure that the commission operates impartially and professionally.
According to Hinds’ motion, Section 19 of the Integrity Act empowers the Integrity Commission and the President to publish the names of persons who are not in compliance with the law in the Official Gazette and in a daily newspaper. The resolve clause of the motion urges that the National Assembly recognise the lawful and legal obligation of MPs to submit annual declarations and it calls on all Members of the National Assembly to submit their declarations in accordance with the law.
The motion further wants the Assembly to declare that failure or refusal of MPs 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 Assembly is also to be called upon to conduct an annual voluntary monitoring exercise of compliance by MPs. Hinds further wants it to implore the President to disclose to the Speaker annually the names of those MPs 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.”
In 2010, Hinds had tabled a similar motion intended to have MPs declare annual declarations of income to the Integrity Commission or face disciplinary action. However, the motion was shelved after the opposition expressed objections to the Speaker of the National Assembly, in light of the failure to identify a chairperson to head the Integrity Commission.
