Juan Edghill
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition is forging ahead with plans to have private criminal actions brought against People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentarians, who breached the provisions of the Integrity Commission Act.
The Party wrote the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Presidency, Abeena Moore, on Wednesday requesting the relevant information about the delinquent PNCR and APNU parliamentarians, a statement from the Opposition Leader’s Office said.
The letter was sent by Opposition Member of Parliament, Juan Edghill, in his capacity as a private citizen, which is allowed under provisions of the Access to Information Act of 2011.
In the letter, which was released to the media, Edghill indicated to Moore, in her capacity as a public authority, that the information being requested is intended to be used in the pursuit of private criminal charges against identified delinquents, who failed to file declarations with the Integrity Commission, in accordance with section 22 of Integrity Commission Acts 1997.
The Opposition parliamentarian is asking for the names of the PNCR parliamentarians of the 8th and 9th Parliament, who failed to submit to the Integrity Commission of Guyana the statutorily required submission of the schedule iii declaration forms (2) disclosing their Income, Assets and Liabilities of themselves and immediate family for the years 2001 to 2006 and 2006 to 2011.
Edghill is also requesting information on APNU parliamentarians in the 10th Parliament who failed to submit to the Integrity Commission of Guyana the statutorily required submission of the schedule iii declaration forms (2) disclosing their Income, Assets and Liabilities of themselves and immediate family for the years 2011 to 2015.
The Commission which is responsible for accountability of persons holding public office has been without a Chairman for some time and has reportedly been functioning with a skeletal staff.
Only a month ago, Moore appeared before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and admitted that the Integrity Commission has been basically dismantled by the coalition Government with only one staff member at the Commission’s Secretariat.
This comes even as Jagdeo, on numerous occasions before, called out Government for refusing to support an Opposition sponsored-motion to have all parliamentarians make certain submissions to the Integrity Commission.
In January 2016, Government used its one-seat parliamentary majority to turn down a motion tabled by the Opposition that would provide for all Members of Parliament (MPs) making public declarations of taxable income and all assets over the last 10 years to the Integrity Commission and released to the public.
The coalition noted that it was not in favour of the public declaration, and would prefer to make such disclosures to the Integrity Commission instead. It had said that such a move would violate privacy of the members.
In defeating the motion, the Government MPs had proposed amendments to the motion for the National Assembly to support the enforcement of the legal requirement for all MPs to file their Income Tax returns and make declarations to the Integrity Commission. However, that proposal was protested by the Opposition and eventually resulted in Edghill calling for his motion to be withdrawn, arguing that the amendments significantly changed the intent of the original motion.
But the coalition MPs declined the withdrawal request and at the end of the debate, succeeded in passing the amended motion.
