NO FISHING
Panton says IC investigating omissions, not invading privacy, in probing statutory declarations
INTEGRITY COMMISSION (IC) Chairman Justice Seymour Panton (Ret’d) has dismissed a suggestion by a senior legislator that its review of a public servant’s statutory declaration dating back 10 to 15 years could constitute “an invasion of privacy”.
During a meeting of the I C Oversight Committee on January 9, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck complained that the anticorruption body was asking questions now of parliamentarians about accounts that they had more than 10 years ago which had been closed off.
“There are parliamentarians now whose statutory declarations have not been certified because they are asking questions about transactions long before they became parliamentarians decades ago,” Chuck said at the meeting, which was held at Gordon House.
The Cabinet minister’s comments came against the background of a recommendation made by the Permanent Secretaries Board (PSB). In relation to the IC, the PSB proposed that “where additional information is requested, the act explicitly specifies that such information shall be limited to the period within which the public official has held his/her office and in cases where the public official is being investigated for breaches of the act or allegations of corruption”.
Describing as “sheer nonsense” the suggestion, Panton said that the commission has seen instances in which persons have made declarations and omitted certain information. In subsequent years, he said, those persons put in their declarations items that were not there before “and so when that is seen, queries are made as to when this came about. It is as simple as that”.
Panton told The Gleaner that he had
received correspondence from permanent secretaries in the past who complained that they were being asked certain questions by the IC. However, he said that although he asked them to provide specific details about their concerns, they failed to do so.
“If a response was sent, it has not reached me,” said Panton, noting that the post in Jamaica is quite lethargic.
Asked to comment on the recent Supreme Court ruling that Barita Investments Limited must comply with an IC request for financial information on 151 current and former public officials, Panton said that the agency has been following the law from the outset.
First Global Bank (FGB), which had initially refused to provide financial information to the IC, later agreed during the court proceedings.
The commission sought the court’s intervention in November 2021 after FGB and Barita refused to comply with a June 2021 request.
Panton said that t he l aw mandates the director of information and complaints to examine all statutory declarations filed with the commission.
It “gives that individual the power to make such enquiries as he or she considers necessary in order to certify or to determine the accuracy of such a statutory declaration”.
The IC chairman insisted that the law directs that everybody is to cooperate with the commission in terms of the exercise of its powers. He noted that bank secrecy laws do not prevent the disclosure of information to the commission, adding that this is why the commission is required to keep certain information confidential.
“So unless there is some legal professional privilege, when the commission enquires of a bank or any financial institution as to an individual’s holdings with the institution, they are to supply it,” he told The Gleaner.
Noting that the law does not allow the commission to go on a fishing expedition, Panton said this was not happening and would never take place.
“There is no question of overreaching as was suggested; we are just following the law,” he said.
Reiterating a comment he made in a previous interview with The Gleaner, Panton contended that many persons in Jamaica often disobey the law. In many instances, he said, this tendency has become the norm.
“And so when the commission seeks to carry out its duties as required by the law, we have some individuals who resist because it is in their normal behaviour to just ignore the law,” said Panton.