— Social Protection Minister Amna Ally to check on identified gov’t members

ACTING Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge said he will soon declare his assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission.

The acting prime minister headed a list of 87 public officials who have failed to submit their declaration to the Integrity Commission in accordance with the Integrity Commission Act.
The Office of the Integrity Commission pursuant to Section 19 of the Integrity Commission Act, in the form of a notice in the local newspaper on Saturday, published the names of 87 public officials who have failed to submit their declarations as of November 1, 2018.

According to the Integrity Commission Act, Part III – Financial Disclosure, Section 13, a person in public life, not being a member of the commission, is required to file a declaration with the commission.

Section 14 of the Act states that a person in public life who holds any money or property in trust for another person, for which the person is not their immediate family, shall state in his or her declaration.

Section 15 (1) states: “A person in public life is required to disclose in his declaration, under section 12, such details in respect of the income, assets and liabilities of himself and those of his spouse and his children, as by the exercise of reasonable care should be known to him.”

Minister Greenidge, in a brief interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday, committed to filing his declaration with the Integrity Commission.
Members of Parliament, including Minister of the Public Service, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine; Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence; Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson; and People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) MPs Priya Manickchand, Anil Nandlall, Dr. Frank Anthony and Dr. Jennifer Westford accounted for 41 of the named persons in public life who have failed to declare their assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission.

Government Chief Whip Amna Ally, who has filed her declaration with the Commission, on Saturday told the Guyana Chronicle that she will ascertain from government members what could have caused the delay in submissions.
“First of all I am going to check to see who are the people who have not submitted. I know we all had agreed that we were going to submit to the Integrity Commission. So I will enquire from them first of all why they have not submitted, and probably encourage them to do so,” Ally told this newspaper.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland; Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Issacs; and the Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly, Hermina Gilgeours, were among those publicly listed.

Section 19 of the Act states: “Where a person who is required to do so fails to file a declaration in accordance with this Act or to furnish particulars under section 18, the commission or the President, as the case may be, shall publish the fact in the Gazette and in a daily newspaper.”

Permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries, presidential advisers, mayors, deputy mayors and town clerks of the nine municipalities were also among those listed by the commission.