The Guyana Integrity Commission has issued a reminder to public officers to declare their assets and liabilities – including those for themselves, spouses and children – on or before August 31 of this year.
In several notices published in the print media, the commission reminded officers to attach their supporting documents to their declaration forms.
Supporting documents include any document such as articles of incorporation, business registration, share certificates, insurance policies, loans and agreements, and/or mortgage deeds, et cetera.
Copy of rental agreements and bank statements as at June 30, 2019, should also be attached.
The commission stated that the specified public officers who are in non-compliance to file a declaration with the commission are subject to Section 22 of the Commission’s Act No.20 of 1997.
That section of the act states:
Any person who –
(i) fails, without reasonable cause, to file with the Commission or the President, as the case may be, a declaration which he is required to file in accordance with the provisions of this Act; or
(ii) knowingly files with the Commission or the President a declaration that is not complete or is false in any material particular; or
(iii) fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with a request made under section 18 or 21 (2) by the Commission, the President or a tribunal, within the time specified therefor by the Commission, the President or the tribunal, as the case may be, or gives incomplete or false information pursuant to the request; or
(iv) fails, without reasonable cause, to attend an inquiry being conducted under section 21, pursuant to a request under section 21 (2), or to furnish any information the tribunal may request the declarant to furnish under that section or knowingly gives any false or incomplete information in such inquiry,
shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) and to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than one year, and where the offence involves the non-disclosure, by the declarant, of property which should have been disclosed in the declaration, the magistrate convicting the person shall order the person to make full disclosure of the property within a given time and on failure to comply with the order of the magistrate within the given time, the said offence shall be deemed to be a continuing offence and the person shall be liable to a further fine of ten thousand dollars for each day on which the offence continues.
