APNU+AFC unaccountable ‘in and out’ of government – Jagdeo

In and out of government, the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition has proven itself at committed to unaccountability, according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo.

His comment came in response to questions at his Thursday (May 25, 2023) news conference at Freedom House, Robb Stret, about the non-compliance of 17 Parliamentarians with the Integrity Commission rules for submissions of declarations.

Disclosing that he is current with his declarations, he added that all PPP/C Parliamentarians have submitted and reasoned, therefore, that the 17 Parliamentarians are from the Parliamentary Opposition. “In and out of government they are unaccountable,” Jagdeo stressed.

Asked about the matter last week, the PPP General Secretary said, “I called Gail Teixeira… she said to me that all of the PPP members of parliament had submitted…that would mean that the 17 are from the other side.”

He has also addressed the publication of default - ers and said, “We support the publication of all of the names of the people who are in default.”

Earlier this month, the Integrity Commission issued a warning this week to public officials who have yet to file their 2022 statements.

The Commission, in an advertisement in a publication of the Sunday Chronicle, stated that just 663 people have applied for the 1,491 designated public officers for the year 2022. It added that 828 declarations are still pending. According to Commission estimates, this equates to delinquencies of 55.5% versus 48% for 2021. In addition to the 17 Members of Parliament, delinquent are 108 in ministries, 208 in the regions and 493 in agencies and departments.

The Commission said it is now preparing to take the next step in accordance with the Integrity Commission Act. As of February 2023, the Commission has sent out notices to several specified public officers for failure to file their declarations. “The next step is, defaulters will see their names published in the local press and the

Official Gazette. The final step, if declarations are still not received, would be to seek prosecution of the defaulters,” the Commission warned.

Statutory declarations for 2022 were initially due on August 31, 2022, but an extension until December 31, 2022 was granted. Declarations for the year 2023 (1st July 2022 to 30th June 2023) are due on or before June 30 this year.

The reconstituted Integrity Commission was composed on May 31, 2022 with the appointment of chairperson, Chandra Gajraj, and four commissioners: Dr Joycelin Kim Kyte-Thomas; Hardesh Tewari; Mohamed Ispahani, and Reverend Wayne Bowman.

Under the law, passed in 2000, certain categories of public officials are required to declare their assets to the Integrity Commission or face criminal charges for not doing so.

Undermined

Notably, in 2017, request for information on compliance with the Integrity Commission rules were denied. A letter written to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Presidency, Abeena Moore, dated June 21, 2017, requested the names of the delinquent PNCR Parliamentarians, of the 8th and 9th Parliament, who failed to submit declaration for the years 2001-2006 and 2006-2011. The same was requested for APNU Parliamentarians who served in the 10th Parliament for the years 2011-2015. The letter was submitted by People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Parliamentar- ian, Juan Edghill, on behalf of the Party. The request was made under provisions of the Access to Information Act of 2011. The letter stated that, “The above requested information is intended to be used in the pursuit of private criminal charges against the identified delinquents in accordance with section 22 of the Integrity Commission Act 1997.”

Notably, it was Moore who, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), admitted that the Secretariat of the

Integrity Commission was dismantled under the former Coalition government between 2015 and 2018. According to her, there is only one staffer remaining at the Integrity Commission Secretariat.

In 2018, when former president David Granger finally swore in the Commissioners of the Integrity Commission, the new Chairman was a self-proclaimed ‘friend’ of the Government, who said that he will not ask for declarations to be made for 2017, 2016 and 2017 –rather he will only deal with 2018. This is despite the fact that the Chairman has to power to call for back-dated declarations to be made to the Integrity Commission. Further, it was PPP/C that made a move to in the National Assembly address the issue of greater accountability for persons in public life, via a motion, during the 2015-2020 period. The motion by the PPP/C called for all MPs make their tax returns, as well as their asset declarations, public. The former APNU+AFC Coalition Government voted against this.