Dhanraj moves against Integrity Commission

ATTORNEYS for former UNC Local Government Minister Dhanraj Singh have filed for leave of judicial review against a decision by the Integrity Commission forcing Singh to declare his income, assets and liabilities for 1999. The application was filed in the Sub-Registry, San Fernando, on Monday. Singh, who was Member of Parliament for Pointe-a-Pierre from 1996 to 2000, was instructed by the Integrity Commission to file a declaration of his income, assets and liabilities for 1999. When he failed to do so, the Commission informed him by letter that they had taken steps to refer his alleged non-compliance to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson. Singh, who was freed by the High Court of the murder of Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation chairman Hansraj Sumairsingh last October, is before the Magistrates’ Court facing 27 charges of fraud involving approximately $2 million.

By letter dated December 17, 2003, the Commission wrote to Singh of Dyers Village, Sisters Road, Williamsville: “The Commission has noted that you have not responded to its letter dated October 28, 2003 in which you were asked to file your declaration for the year 1999 by November 2000. The Commission has decided therefore that it will take steps to have your failure to fulfill your obligations under the law, published in the Gazette and in at least one daily newspaper in circulation in Trinidad and Tobago in accordance with Section 11 (6) of the Integrity in Public Life Act, 2000. After publication, the Commission will refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions without further notice to you if it determines that you are not in compliance with the Act.”

In the documents filed by attorneys Kulraj Kamta and Associates on Monday afternoon, Singh is seeking to have a High Court judge review the decision of the Commission on the ground that the Integrity in Public Life Act passed in Parliament in 2000, repealed the Public Life Act of 1987. Kamta, in a legal opinion attached to Singh’s writ and sent to the Commission, said when the 2000 Act came into force on November 6, 2000, members of the House of Representatives and Ministers of Government were exempted from any obligation to declare their assets and income. Singh is contending in his writ that there is no constitutional basis for the Commission to require any former or present member of the House to comply with the requirements of the old Act or the 2000 Integrity law. On January 16, the Commission’s acting Registrar Albert Alkins, informed Kamta that the Commission was seeking legal advice on the issue. On February 17, Alkins in a legal opinion, informed Kamta that if Singh was a person in public life in 2000, before the coming into operation of the 2000 Act, he would have been required to file a declaration for 1999.