Police, DPP should take action against law breakers – former AG

Failure to declare assets

In keeping with its constitutional responsibilities, the Integrity Commission has published a list of a number of public officials including Ministers, who failed to declare their assets last year. Making the list are a number of Ministers and former parliamentarians.
During an interview on Saturday, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall described the violations as a manifestation of “lawlessness” on the part of the Government. He noted that such breaches of the law should not go unpunished.
“It’s a question of lawlessness and lack of accountable governance. The law is being violated and the Integrity Commission has a duty to secure compliance with the law. The Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions [Shalimar Ali-Hack] should be engaged.”
“In any lawful and democratic society, that would have happened. Yet, after these vulgar violations, this bandwagon of politicians is asking Guyanese to vote for them on the basis that they are honest and decent,” the attorney-at-law noted.
Nandlall questioned why those who were flagged would be reluctant to make declarations, particularly since President David Granger has founded his electoral campaign on slogans like “honesty and decency”. Nandlall noted that the expectation is that public officials must at all times be ready to give account for assets and any wealth in their possession.
“This is another manifestation of the lawless culture being practised by this Government. Every time the President speaks on the issue of law, he professes to obey the Constitution and the laws of this land and commits his Government to constitutionality and lawful conduct. However, the reality is largely the opposite.”
“You will recall that after being in Government for little over a year, we challenged the Ministers in parliament to declare their assets and make public their integrity declarations and their income, so that the population [could see]. We were prepared to do the same, after being in Government for 23 years. They blatantly refused to do so.”

The list
According to the list gazette by the Integrity Commission, as of January 24, 2020, a total of eight Ministers failed to declare their assets. The list is led by Nandlall’s successor as Attorney General, Basil Williams.
Other names on the list are Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan and Social Cohesion Minister Dr George Norton. Also included are Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Karen Cummings, Public Service Minister Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Junior Minister of Agriculture Valarie Adams-Yearwood and Minister within the Ministry of the Presidency, Simona Broomes.
A number of former Members of Parliament from the Government side, who served in the last Parliament just before it was dissolved to pave the way for elections, were also included on the list. No members of the parliamentary Opposition members were on the list.
Staff of the National Assembly were not spared, as both Speaker of the House Dr Barton Scotland and Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Issacs, were flagged for not making their declarations. Also included were Permanent Secretaries and technical officials from a number of state agencies and Ministries.
Only recently, Integrity Commission Head Kumar Doraisami had said that they did not have funds to publish delinquent public officials. In response, some local newspapers including this publication, had offered to publish the names free of cost.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan had said in response that the Integrity Commission can gazette the name, which could publish names for free. The Integrity Commission Act Chapter 26:01 says that all public officials must declare all assets in their names, as well as the assets of immediate family, every year.
Failure to do so can see the Integrity Commission holding a tribunal into the affairs of the offending official. Persons failing to make declarations “shall be liable, on summary conviction to a fine of $25,000 and to imprisonment for a term 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 persons 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 a continuing offence and the person shall be liable to a further fine of $10,000 for each day the offence continues.”