The Integrity Commission is looking for suitably qualified and experienced persons to be employed as investigators.
According to advertisements published in at least two daily newspapers during this month, the minimum qualifications are five subjects at CXC or GCE Ordinary Level including English Language and Mathematics plus a minimum of three years experience in conducting investigations.
Qualifications and experience in accountancy will be an asset. A copy of the job description can be obtained from the Commission’s Secretariat which is located at Lot 74 Church Road & 5th Avenue, Subryanville, Georgetown.
In December last year, the Chairman, Kumar Doraisami had expressed the need for investigators to be employed sometime this year. In an interview with this newspaper he had expressed the need for at least ten.
“We want to have investigators [but] we haven’t had money for that. We are now trying to budget for that because without investigators we are not really going anywhere,” he had explained.
The matter was again raised in February. According to him the Commission has plans to hire at least five investigators but he did not give a time frame in which this will be done.
According to the commission’s website there are two investigative officers already on staff.
According to the Integrity Commission Act, every person who is a person in public life, not being a member of the Commission, is required to file a declaration every year on or before June 30th and in cases where such persons cease to be a person in public life, within 30 days from the date on which the person ceases to be a person in public life.
“A declaration 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,” it further states.
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.”
The Act mandates the commission to examine complaints of a breach of any provision of the Code of Conduct. Those complaints must be made in writing and once accepted as being legitimate are investigated.
The other commissioners are attorney Rosemary Benjamin-Noble and Pandit Rabindranath Persaud.
Anyone requiring any more information about the commission and its work can visit the website; http://www.integritycommission.gov.gy/about-us. Contact can be made via telephone numbers 226-0142, 227-7688 or 227-3576 or by sending an email to integrity_commission@ yahoo.com or ic@integritycommission. gov.gy
