Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo says he anticipates that the Integrity Commission (IC) will be in place before the end of this month. Notwithstanding its inactivity, Jagdeo said that the law and the Secretariat are still in place, and there is an obligation for members to make their declaration.
“We have submitted, notwithstanding there is no commission. I have submitted [and] most of our MPs, we’ll have to check with everyone, but we made it clear that they have to submit their statements to the Integrity Commission – there is a secretariat [and] you get a receipt for your submission,” he told the press this afternoon.
The VP noted that former Coalition Ministers and public officials appointed by that regime failed to make submissions for three years.
“They not only did not have the Commission in place for three years, but they refuse to make the submissions, and that is why we disagreed with the ruling at that period by the Chair to say that the would not look at the three back years (backdating)…There was an obligation to comply with the law. The law didn’t change; it’s just that the Commission was not in place…So, let us make this very, very clear: Members of Parliament and everyone still have to submit, even in the absence [of the Commission]. Now, APNU did not submit in three years (2016, 2017, and 2018). They made no submission,” he said.
Integrity Commission Act was passed made into law in 1997, requiring all persons who hold public office or public life to declare their assets, or make financial declaration to the Integrity Commission. The Integrity Commission was established by Act No. 20 of 1997 and passed on the 24th September of the same year.