Kamla: Officials escape probe

For yet a third year public officials will escape the scrutiny of the Integrity Commission, remarked Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The House of Representatives on Friday failed to vote on whether to adopt the Integrity Act’s Regulations and Prescribed Forms but instead sent them to a parliamentrary joint select committee for scrutiny, amid Opposition protests. Even after the vote, Persad-Bissessar was heard loudly grumbling of the inefficacy of this committee, saying: “November is the deadline. Now we’ll have to wait another year.” Persad-Bissessar later told Sunday Newsday that while the Government’s motion lets the Joint Select Committee bring back the integrity forms and regulations to Parliament by December 31, by this date the November 30 deadline for public officials to declare their assets would have expired. She explained: “The Integrity in Public Life Act says you must file your declaration by May 31 each year and that the Integrity Commission has the discretion to extend that period for filing by a further six months, so November 30 would be the deadline date.

“What the Government has done is to allow people in public life to escape the scrutiny of the Integrity Commission into their financial affairs for another year. The Government must now state that they will amend the law to make filing of these declarations retroactive to cover the three year period.” She explained that in any given year the May 31 deadline to file was to cover the period of the preceding year. She said new PNM Government Ministers plus chairmen of State boards and other public officials had escaped having to declare their assets possessed in the year 2000 and 2001, and now with Friday’s vote, the year 2002. “All those persons who became (PNM) Ministers in 2001, should have declared their assets for the year before they became a Minister, and then file every year after. Ministers have escaped filing for 2000, 2001, and 2002. In Parliament we have objected strongly and were totally against any type of delay and had asked Parliament to approve the integrity regulations now.” Recalling the non-convening of Parliament by the PNM Government after the 18-18 tie of the 2001 general elections, Persad-Bissessar said the Government since 2002 had spent $30 billion without accountability to the Parliament and without anyone making declarations to the Integrity Commission.