On Friday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Integrity Commission provided an end-of-year report to the public on its accomplishments. It was breathtaking in scope compared to the shambolic performance of the Integrity Commission here over the past decade and longer.
According to a Trinidad Express report, the Commission provided the following statistics:
• 2,772 ex parte applications were filed for outstanding Declarations and Statements of Registrable Interests;
• 1,592 court orders were obtained from the High Court pursuant to ex parte applications;
• 521 court orders were served on people for non-compliance with ex parte orders;
• 517 outstanding Declarations and Statements of Registrable Interests were filed in accordance with orders served — 37 files have been sent to the DPP regarding people who have not complied with Orders of the Court to be prosecuted;
—1,143 Declarations and Statements of Registrable Interests have been certified.
According to the report, the Commission also highlighted the success of its Investigations Unit in dealing with cold cases as old as nine years.
In 2022, the Commission stated that an investigator was assigned to bring closure to 107 cold cases discovered due to an audit conducted in 2021. For 2022, 18 cold cases were closed.
As of December 2022, the Commission stated that it had 44 active investigations dating back to 2013 and had closed ten.
It also revealed that there have been changes to its investigations and a tracking system has been implemented.
The Commission also said that investigations are now structured and are generally to be completed within an estimated six months to one year.
Further, the Commission said that its Investigation Unit was diversified and now comprises professionals with expertise in the areas of accounting, law and policing. The Commission also added that it will be moving to utilise powers which will allow it to summon witnesses and question them under oath.
Hopefully, Guyana’s Integrity Commission will take note of the accomplishments of its sister body in the Twin Island Republic and move to take similar steps. It will be immediately evaluated as to how it handles delinquencies pertaining to declarations for the year, July 1st 2021 to June 30th, 2022. As has been customary with the Integrity Commission here, great leeway has been given to the Specified Public Officers in the submission of statutory declarations but even then delinquencies continue to be high as many of those who come under the Commission clearly don’t take it seriously. Whereas the statutory declarations for 2022 were originally due on August 31, 2022, an overly generous extension to December 31, 2022 was granted. The public should now be able to see how many persons have since complied and what the Integrity Commission will do about those who are still recalcitrant.
The most recent figures posted by the Integrity Commission show that for the year 2022, only five declarations were submitted and in relation to the other 1277 the process was “ongoing”. For the year 2021, 783 declarations – just over half – were still outstanding. Hundreds of declarations are also to be submitted for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020.
With oil wealth pouring into this country, it is imperative that government officials set the example and present declarations that do not betray inexplicable wealth accumulation or dissonance between their lifestyles and earnings. However, those declarations will not mean a thing if the Integrity Commission does not rigorously probe them and use its powers under the Integrity Commission Act to interrogate further and settle discrepancies.
A properly functioning Integrity Commission is a crucial part of the anti-corruption architecture and in a matter of months the public will be able to judge whether the PPP/C government and the Integrity Commission are serious about their mandates particularly in an environment where financing is now available for adequate human and other resources for the Commission.
In his accountability column in today’s Stabroek News, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran said the following: The Guyana Integrity Commission needs to get its act going, especially as regards: (i) arranging for the prosecution of public officials who have failed to submit their financial declarations; (ii) investigating apparent mismatch between declarations and ownership of assets (inclusive of beneficial ownership) as well as observable lifestyles; (iii) conflicts of interest; and (iv) violations of the Code of Conduct. Indeed.
