AG unsure on Integrity

Is the Integrity in Public Life Act 2000 in force? Attorney General John Jeremie can’t say for sure. On Tuesday he fought an Opposition motion for a parliamentary code of ethics to probe Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s recent European trip. Jeremie argued that the matter was best dealt with by the Integrity Commission under the Integrity Act. But approached by Newsday, he could not confirm whether or not the Integrity Act has been effected by the gazetting of its Forms and Regulations. These two pieces of subsidiary legislation enable public officials to declare their assets and were passed by both Houses of Parliament last November. Approached by reporters yesterday after the Senate, Jeremie gave a conflicting response. Reporters asked whether the Act was in force through the gazetting of its Forms and Regulations as a public notice in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette. Jeremie replied: “The Integrity Act has been in force since 2000.”

Reporters replied that this could not be so unless the Forms were gazetted. Jeremie said: “It is my understanding that the Forms were gazetted on Friday. That is my understanding. I have not checked on it today.” Given that he was coming to the Senate to talk about the Integrity Act (in reply to an Opposition motion on the adjournment), he was asked if he should have been more responsible and first checked on this important issue. “I checked on it up to today, and Government bureaucracies are something else. I have not been able to discover from the Government Printery whether or not the forms have actually been published.” Reporters replied that this was not the question. Asked again whether the matter had been gazetted, he said: “As a legal notice I myself have not seen it, but I have officers in (the Office of) the Chief Parlia-mentary Counsel who would see to that.” Reporters told him his two answers were inconsistent and pressed him again as to whether the Forms had been gazetted or not. Jeremie replied: “I am sorry I cannot comment...I have given a comment.”