Integrity Commission to pursue defaulters through the court system
The Integrity Commission say that it is currently engaging an attorney for the prosecution of public officeholders who failed to submit their financial declarations for the year 2022.
This was disclosed by the commission’s secretary Dr Amanda Jaisingh via email on Tuesday following a request by Stabroek News a few weeks ago for an update on the defaulters for 2022 and 2023.
“The Commission continues to receive outstanding declarations and soon will be publishing defaulters for the 2023 declaration period as mandated by the Act,” Singh wrote in the email.
“The Commission is currently engaging a lawyer in discussion for the prosecution of 2022 declaration period defaulters.”
On March 3 this year, this newspaper reported that the Integrity Commission had served notice to 31 public officers that they faced a fine and imprisonment if they did not submit their 2022 declarations on or before April 2, 2024. Among those listed as defaulters were Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken, Guyana Water Inc’s CEO Shaik Baksh, National Drainage and Irrigation Authority CEO Frederick Flatts and University of Guyana Vice Chancellor Dr Paloma Mohamed.
The gazetted notice said that continued failure to file constituted an offence as per Section 22 of the commission’s Act, No. 20 of 1997. The penalty for that offence is a fine of $25,000 together with six months or not more than one-year in prison.
The list of defaulters was published in the March 2 edition of the Official Gazette. Others on the list were Burrowes School of Art Administrator Ivor Thom, Registrar General of the General Registrar’s Office Raymon Cummings, former Chief of Staff (ag) of the Guyana Defence Force Brigadier Godfrey Bess, Chief Fire Officer (ag) of the Guyana Fire Service Gregory Wickham, Guyana Livestock and Development Authority CEO Dr Dwight Walrond and former Commissioner of Police (ag) Nigel Hoppie. Also listed as in default were Lethem Power Company CEO Thurston Semple, Hinterland Electrification Company Inc CEO Horace Williams, General Manager of the National Insurance Scheme Holly Greaves and former CEO of the Gaming Authority of Guyana Lloyd Moore.
On September 26, 2023, Stabroek News had reported that only 635 public officials out of a total of 1,587 had submitted their financial declarations for the period July 1, 2022 to June 30 2023.
The data which was provided to this publication last year showed that for the period July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, 911 public officers had submitted their financial declarations.
Last August, the Integrity Commission reminded all individuals holding public office to submit their 2023 financial declarations by the end of that month.