‘What’s happening in the shadows?’
Malahoo Forte urges IC to shine light on other officials, not just politicians
Published:Wednesday | November 1, 2023 | 12:10 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte has raised questions about the Integrity Commission’s (IC) effectiveness in using the model of reviewing statutory declarations of public servants as a means of tackling corruption.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to hear that they are just put aside in file 13, 14 or 15 and nothing is done to them. It is really bringing into question whether a model for the declaration of assets and liabilities against your income and your debt is the most effective way to tackle concerns of corruption in public office,” she said yesterday during a meeting of the IC Oversight Committee of Parliament.
In 2017, the current administration piloted the Integrity Commission Act in Parliament. A critical provision was Section 39, which mandates parliamentarians and public officials earning $3.5 million or more to submit to the director of information and complaints a statutory declaration of his/her assets, income and liabilities.
This was part of the Government’s thrust to unearth and prosecute corruption and to improve Jamaica’s standing on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
ESCAPING SEARCHLIGHT
Malahoo Forte indicated that the commission’s inability to review 40,000 statutory declarations submitted by public servants annually suggested that many public officials may have escaped its searchlight.
She wants timely reports from the commission on steps to clear the backlog of statutory declarations that are yet to be examined.
As part of efforts to address this concern, Director of Information and Complaints Craig Beresford recommended in September that the legislation be amended to increase the threshold for filing to $12 million.
During yesterday’s deliberations, IC Oversight Committee members supported the recommendation to set the new threshold for public servants to file at $12 million. This would mean that the estimated number of persons who will be required to file documents detailing their income, assets and liabilities will be reduced to 10,000 annually.
“If the fight against corruption is premised on a knowledge of whether your assets reflect your legitimate income, then how will you know if the vast majority of declarations remain unexamined? Something is amiss,” said Malahoo Forte.
The legal and constitutional affairs minister is also of the view that the IC’s anti-corruption floodlight should be focused equally on other public officials and not just lawmakers.
“Parliamentarians are not the only category of people whose integrity in public life needs to be under constant scrutiny,” she said.
“We are an important part of public life and government, but we are a small part and the compliance rate is high, yet the focus is uneven. When you turn the spotlight on one category, you leave others in the dark, and I want to know what is happening to those that are in the shadows,” Malahoo Forte contended.
Under the now-repealed Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act, 1973, the spotlight was placed directly and solely on parliamentarians who had a duty to furnish statutory declarations to the commission.
The Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act, 1973, the Corruption Prevention Act and the Contractor General Act were all subsumed in the new Integrity Commission Act in 2017.
The submission and examination of statutory declarations of public officials to, among other things, ascertain whether they have acquired wealth illicitly form part of established conventions to which Jamaica is a signatory.
Article 9 of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, which Jamaica ratified in 2001, highlights the problem of illicit enrichment. It states: “Subject to its Constitution and the fundamental principles of its legal system, each state party that has not yet done so shall take the necessary measures to establish under its laws as an offence a significant increase in the assets of a government official that he cannot reasonably explain in relation to his lawful earnings during the performance of his functions.”
In addition, Article 9 states that “among those states parties that have established illicit enrichment as an offence, such offence shall be considered an act of corruption for the purposes of this convention”.