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PM, other MPs still not cleared

Published:Tuesday | May 14, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Holness

The Integrity Commission revealed yesterday that it has still not given the all-clear sign to the 2017 statutory declarations filed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and seven other current and former members of parliament.

The commission, in its 2017 annual report to Parliament, identified the current parliamentarians whose declarations were examined but not cleared at the date of the report as state minister in the labour ministry, Zavia Mayne; Luther Buchanan; Leslie Campbell; and Ian Hayles.

Former education minister Ruel Reid, Arnaldo Brown and Keith Walford are the ex-lawmakers whose declarations were not cleared.

But, according to Commissioner Pamela Monroe Ellis, nothing has changed more than two years after the declarations were filed.

“I can report that as at today, the status remains the same,” Monroe Ellis said during the first press conference.

Parliamentarians are required by law to furnish to the commission a statutory declaration of his/her assets, liabilities and income as at the date of his/her election or appointment, and thereafter by December 31 each year.

The hold-up, Monroe Ellis suggested, was with the absence of supporting documents to allow for an examination of their declarations.

“It is not just for a declarant to indicate what the asset and liabilities are at the 31st of December, but incumbent on that declarant is the requirement to provide evidence to support everything that is reported,” she said.

“Where a declarant has failed to provide all that information, it is considered to be not completed,” she added.

Campbell and Buchanan had told The Gleaner that they had already responded to requests by the commission, while Mayne said he was at a loss to explain why he was on the list.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com