OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has reiterated his call for all Members of the National Assembly to make public their tax returns over the last 10 years to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Integrity Commission over the last 10 years.At a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House, the former President made it clear that he does not have any account hidden in any tax havens. Jagdeo was at the time responding to a question in wake of the leaked Panama Papers that show that several politicians and other prominent persons stashed monies overseas.

Jagdeo was adamant that there is no account hidden on any offshore account or any other tax havens.

“We had proposed a motion in Parliament to release statements to the Integrity Commission. We amended the motion to include the release of the integrity commission statement to the public and also a clause which we should go aggressively after and prosecute persons. But they voted against it,” the former President said, referring to the government side of the house.

Jagdeo said he is prepared to ask Interpol to inquire about all Members of Parliament who have bank accounts abroad, shares in companies, properties and assets to produce a report on everyone.

“I am prepared now to still cooperate with the Government not surreptitiously through SARU (State Asset Recovery Unit) because those are political hacks.

“Let us do this as a motion in parliament; then we jointly make a request to the international organisations who would not treat it as partisan.
“They would treat it as a national thing, where we want to find out the status of all Presidents, Ex-Presidents and Members of Parliament about their holdings abroad,” Jagdeo stressed.

He further questioned whether the coalition-led government would be willing to support the PPPC’s proposal to hire a private investigator firm or Interpol to conduct the probe.

The Panama Papers show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.