New delay for Integrity Act

Government has offered a new excuse for not seeking  immediate parliamentary approval for the declaration forms required under the Integrity in Public Life Act.

The original Order Paper of the Parliament, dated October 27 had a motion, piloted in the name of the Attorney General, asking the House to approve the Integrity in Public Life (Prescribed Forms) Regulations and the Integrity in Public Life (Period of Furnishing of Information) Regulations. However at the very last minute Government amended this  motion,  asking instead that the matter be referred to a Joint Select Committee for its deliberation. The amended motion stated that the JSC (Joint Select  Committee) would be mandated to report back to the House on December 1 and  would be empowered to received expert assistance and advice from Members of the Integrity Commission, who drafted the forms in the first place.

The Integrity Commission, Opposition and the country have been calling for the laying of the forms in the Parliament over the past two years. The forms would require public officers, including Ministers, members of State Boards, judges, members of the THA, etc, to declare their income, assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission. Yesterday, Minister of Legal Affairs Camille Robinson-Regis in piloting the measure argued: “It is incumbent on Parliament to look closely at the forms in circumstances where the information to be provided is so far-reaching, and where the legislation was subsidiary legislation and has not had the scrutiny of a Minister. Even though the Integrity Commission is an independent body, because the information touches so closely on members of Parliament, it is clear that members of Parliament need to examine closely the content of the subsidiary legislation,” she said.

Opposition MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar couldn’t believe that after a two-year delay (in bringing the forms) Government wanted to send it now to the Joint Select Committee. “It is a further year of escape and evasion for the PNM boys,” she said, lamenting that not one PNM minister had filed a declaration. She pointed to the recent purchase of a million dollar Moka home by PNM chairman, Franklyn Khan, saying that the Integrity Commission was in no position to make a judgment on how he acquired the assets for the purchase of his home. Prime Minister Patrick Manning, seated right next to Khan, didn’t escape Persad-Bissessar’s fire either. She said it was “disgraceful” that Prime Minister Patrick Manning admitted in Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference that Government had done no study to determine the impact of gas prices on the cost of living. She was however even more “disappointed” in the Minister of  Consumer Affairs who had taken on the chicken producers.

“It is said that every time the Prime Minister opens his mouth he puts his foot in it. And he appears to have more feet than a millipede,” she said. She also described as “one of the greatest acts of incompetence” the fact that the “Social and Economic Policy Framework” — which talked about government targetting “Afro-Trinidadian males” for recruitment in COSTAAT — could have been laid by the Prime Minister in the Parliament and he not have even read the document. Saying that the PNM has never been serious about dealing with corruption, Persad-Bissessar noted that the State and its authorities were more bent on “going after” Basdeo Panday. She said the UNC sent documents on the Labidico affair to the DPP over a year ago but nothing had happened. “When it is PNM, no investigation and no charges. When it is UNC, it is every trumped up charge they could find,” she said. Government leader, Ken Valley told Persad-Bissessar that she was “brassfaced” to be making such statements.