The Stabroek News is offering to publish, free of cost, the names of persons in public life who have thus far failed to file their declarations of assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission.
The offer was extended on Monday following a recent disclosure by Chairman of the Commission’s Board, Kumar Doraisami that the anti-corruption body lacks the requisite funds to publish the list. Doraisami, during an interview in September, had also said that the Commission lacks funding to prosecute defaulters.
The Integrity Commission Act was assented to in 1997.
The Commission’s budget increased from $39 million in 2018 to $45 million in 2019, but Doraisami said that unexpected, urgent renovation work ate into the Commission’s budget, so that the funding which it has remaining is only sufficient to pay staff, rent, and utilities.
Response to offer
When informed of Stabroek News’ offer, Doraisami explained that he cannot make a decision unilaterally. He said the entity’s Commissioners must meet to deliberate and come to a decision. The other Commissioners are Rosemary Benjamin-Noble and Rabindranauth Persaud.
He did say, however, that he welcomes the offer, and would not be opposed to accepting same.
Asked when the Commissioners are likely to meet to consider the offer, Doraisami explained that he and the Commission’s two other Commissioners are slated to meet in the first week of January 2020, at which time they plan to ascertain the persons who have filed their declarations, and those who have not. Doraisami said the list of defaulters is usually prepared and published after that meeting.
Asked whether this meeting should not have taken place months ago, given the June 30th deadline for the filing of declarations, Doraisami said that the meeting was not held after the Commission realised that it could not publish the list of defaulters this year.
Doraisami said that in the interim, the offer, which was made via telephone, should be put in writing and brought to the Commission.
Interestingly, Doraisami told Stabroek News that he is optimistic that the Commission will be in possession of funds that will enable it to publish a list of defaulters early next year.
It is uncertain where this financing will come from. Doraisami had previously told Stabroek News that he has requested additional funds from the Ministry of Finance, but that his request had been denied.
During a press conference last week, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, responding to questions from the media on the Commission’s financial status, echoed the position Doraisami said was communicated to him.
Jordan also suggested that if the Commission lacks the funds to publish the list of defaulters in the newspapers, it can consider the option of publishing the list of defaulters via Guyana’s Official Gazette, which can be done free of cost.
Furthermore, the Commission has a website from which members of the public may download various documents, and to which it may upload the list of defaulters.
Declarations
Section 13 of the Integrity Commission Act requires all persons in public life to file with the Commission a declaration containing the full and true particulars of the assets and liabilities as at the date of filing. The declaration must also include the persons’ income during the twelve-month period immediately preceding the filing of the declaration.
A person required to file this declaration must include all owned assets, whether held in his or her own name, or in the name of another person. The spouse, including a common law spouse, of such a person, as well as their children, are also required to file declarations of their assets and liabilities.
The Commission’s financial year runs from July 1st to June 30th, and all declarations must be filed by or before June 30th. Thus, declarants had from July 1st, 2018 to June 30th, 2019 to file their declarations.
On September 8th, 2019, Stabroek News reported Doraisami as saying that almost two-thirds of persons in public life had failed to file their declarations, although the deadline has expired more than two months prior.
On Monday, Doraisami said that more declarations have been collected since September, and more keep coming, although he said the majority of persons remained delinquent.
The Chairman had shared with Stabroek News that 1,137 declaration forms were distributed to facilitate the filing of declarations, but only 396, or 35 percent were returned. Doraisami had also said that Members of Parliament (MPs) were among the delinquent declarants.
Section 19 of the Act requires that the Commission publish, in a daily newspaper and in the Gazette, the names of persons who fail to file their declarations in accordance with the requirements of the Act.
Furthermore, a person who fails to file his declaration in the manner prescribed by the Act may be prosecuted by the Commission, so long as the written consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is obtained.
In the September 8th report, Doraisami had also said that the Commission did not have sufficient funds to prosecute persons who were delinquent in filing their declarations.
Several stakeholders, including former Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran, have expressed some optimism that making the Commission a constitutional body may ease some of its financial woes, but Jordan has said that at the end of the day, the Finance Ministry must approve all budgets, so that the change in status does not automatically translate to a bigger budget.
