Chairman of the Integrity Commission Kumar Doraisami has disclosed that as of last Wednesday, 23 government and three opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) are still delinquent in the filing of their 2019 declaration of assets as required by the Integrity Commission Act.
Additionally, 15 government and two opposition MPs are yet to file their declarations for 2018, said Doraisami, while declining to disclose the names of the delinquent officials.
Doraisami also says that the body’s commissioners have not yet decided on whether they will accept offers by Stabroek News and other newspapers to publish the list of defaulting declarants.
“We cannot take up the offer. We came to a decision after a lengthy meeting that we have to be careful because we do not want to be accused of leaning toward certain papers”, Doraisami said.
When asked if the Commission would not dodge such accusations if it accepted all the offers it received, Doraisami clarified that at the meeting last week, it was also decided that “if we cannot get any funding this month, then it may have to come to that”.
Last December, Stabroek News offered 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 Commission following a disclosure by Doraisami that the anti-corruption body lacks the requisite funds to publish the list. Subsequently, several other publications made similar offers. Doraisami, during an interview in September, had also said that the Commission lacks funding to prosecute defaulters.
The offer was made orally, but then reduced to writing and sent to the Commission on the request of Doraisami, who said he could not make a decision unilaterally, and that the commissioners would deliberate on the offers on a meeting to be held in the first week of January 2020.
However, Doraisami, who shared that all newspaper media outlets with the exception of the State- controlled Guyana Chronicle have also made offers, explained yesterday that the commissioners, during that meeting last week, decided to make one last attempt to access funds from the Ministry of Finance to make the publications.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan has said on several occasions that the Commission will not be receiving any additional funds to supplement its previous budget. As the 2020 budget is unlikely to be prepared and approved until several months after the March 2nd general and regional elections. Jordan has stated that it could take as long as August. The Commission will receive a fraction of its 2019 budget in light of the extant political reality, but it is uncertain whether this amount will be sufficient to cover overheads, salaries, and allow the Commission to execute its mandate.
Jordan has suggested that the Commission has the option of publishing the list in the Official Gazette, for which it will not be charged. The Com-mission also has a website on which it makes various documents available to the public, and therefore, on which the list can be posted.
Last year, Doraisami said that 1,137 declaration forms were distributed to facilitate the filing of declarations for 2019, but that only 396, or 35 percent were returned.
