…calls mount for PPP candidate to resign from Integrity Commission
…Gov’t MPs raise issue of conflict of interest
…matter to be discussed by body next week

Chairman of the Integrity Commission, former Magistrate, Kumar Doraisami, says at next week’s meeting of the body he intends to inform commissioner Pandit Rabindranath Persaud that once one steps into the political limelight, “by convention “one is expected to resign from the public position.

Doraisami told the Guyana Chronicle that only last week, Persaud informed him that he was selected by the Opposition Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) as a regional candidate for that party to contest this year’s regional and general elections.
According to the chair, Persaud said nothing to him on the subject at the commission’s meeting on January 8, 2020. “So I said, did you know about that before the meeting and he said no,”Doraisami said.

Doraisami said he told Persaud that he would need to check the Integrity Commission Act on the subject because in his (Doraisami) opinion, it would appear to be a conflict of interest.

The chair said he perused the act but found nothing regarding a conflict of interest. ”However, it is my belief once you take a political stand, people’s perception would be that you are biased,” the former magistrate said.
The chairman said that at next week’s statutory meeting, he will not ask Persaud to resign, but rather he will point out the public’ perception on the subject. He noted that once a commissioner moves from a neutral organisation to one that has a political bias, then he/she should resign.

He noted too, if any official or member of the public issue a complaint, then the necessary steps would have to be taken. ”The public has spoken out, the Attorney General has spoken on the issue so we will have to see a way forward,” Doraisami said.

Doraisami said Persaud has served the commission well and according to him, the commission has been undertaking its mandate without interference. He explained that neither Persaud nor any commissioner is privy to any declarations made by public officials. He said that if any commissioner requires any information, that information has to be requested and processed through the chairman’s office.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle last week Attorney General, Basil Williams noted that persons who sit on the commission, must be without reproach, even as he alluded to Persaud being on the PPP’s list. “Right now there is a Commissioner of the Integrity Commission who is on the PPP list. Obviously, that Commissioner would be prejudice,” he told this newspaper.

In June 2017, the Integrity Commission (Amendment of the Code of Conduct) Order 2017 was gazetted by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
In keeping with the 10 Principles of Public Life – accountability, dignity, diligence, duty, honour, integrity, loyalty, objectivity, responsibility and transparency – the order addressed issues of bribes, discrimination, gifts, conflict of interest, use of official influence, handling of classified information, use of public property, sexual misconduct and entertainment.

The expansion of the existing Code of Conduct, the Prime Minister had explained, will bring the Act in line with the legislation governing the State Asset Recovery Unit and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which states that employees of these state agencies must declare their assets in accordance with the Schedule II of the State Asset Recovery Act.
The Integrity Commission Act was assented to on September 24, 1997.

The Act provides for the appointment of a chairman to head the Commission, not less than two and not more than four other members of the Commission, a secretary to oversee the day-to-day work of the Commission, and other officers for the proper functioning of the Commission.