By Gary EleazarGail Teixeira, the Presidential Advisor on Governance, yesterday blamed former Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin, for stalling the appointment of a Chairman of the Integrity Commission.She also alluded to some possible amendments to the Substantive Act and lamented the prolonged gestation period for the Bill—some 50 years, she said– before its passage.“The Bill is open to further amendments and therefore that may be an issue that may be brought into the discussions.”Teixeira was at the time responding to a query about the prolonged hiatus in appointing a Chairman for the Commission and why has the Commission not been given the staffing strength required to fully investigate the declarations by Public Officials and move for penalties in the face of violations.“There had been many attempts by President (Bharrat) Jagdeo to consult with the Leader (of the Opposition) on Nominees for the Chair…(but) all names that were put forward were not found to be acceptable.”The Presidential Advisor said that “maybe we erred on the side of unity” in trying to reach agreement. She spoke to the fact that even on the issue of the Commissioners, some of whom were drawn from the religious community and the fact that the People’s National Congress Reform had concerns. The PNC Parliamentarians have also refused to submit declarations of their assets and other relative information to the Integrity Commission. There has been no penalty for the failure to comply.“As members of the government I will say this… we submit annually our declarations to the Integrity Commission in accordance with the Act.”Teixeira posited that the Commission processes the declarations and would examine them.This, however, is far from the reality as according to informed officials close to the Commission, even though the declarations are made, they are left to gather dust because of staff shortage. Teixeira, however, refuted this suggestion.A visit to the Commission office yesterday found four persons in the Office. One of them was the Secretary who said that she was sworn to secrecy and as such could not divulge any information not even on the staffing strength.She directed attention to the entity’s website www.integritycommission.gov.gy which stated that the Commission should have one Chairman, three Commissioners, one Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, one Accounts Clerk, one Clerical Officer, one Receptionist/Confidential Secretary, One Office Assistant and One Cleaner/Handywoman.Some 70 per cent of the necessary declarations by public officials are made to the Integrity Commission but without the staff to properly process the declarations, to ascertain whether the assets of the officials in reality coincide with the declarations, they are left to “gather dust.”According to Teixeira,Cheap Soccer Gear, the Act specifies roughly 300 positions held by public officials who must submit declarations. They include the Head of State, all Government Ministers, Members of Parliament and senior Public Officials.She feels that there should be investigation of those who do not adhere to the Act.“Investigative yes, but if you ask me what clauses I want to change it would probably be to strengthen the penalty clauses and the offences because people have to do the first thing and that is submit their declarations,” said Teixeira.The current option for non-submission of declarations by officials would be that the Commission would publish the names of the defaulters but this is yet to be done.The Integrity Commission Act also states that: “Where a person who is or was a person in public life, or any other person on his behalf, is found to be in possession of property or pecuniary resource disproportionate to the known sources of income of the first mentioned person, and that person fails to produce satisfactory evidence to prove that the possession of the property or pecuniary resource was acquired by lawful means, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine and to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than three years.”The fine is calculated in relation to the value of assets or property belonging to the named individual.The most recent Chairman of the Commission was Bishop Randolph George who resigned in 2009.The Commission is empowered to request assistance from the Guyana Police Force through the Commissioner of Police as well as the Director of Public Prosecutions but is again stymied by its staffing constraints.When pressed on the issue of why the Commission is not being properly staffed to effectively carry out its function Teixeira told this publication that “there is staff as far as I am aware that would be able and astute enough to pick up where there are inconsistencies or contradictions and would be able to bring it to the Commissioners’ attention.”She suggested that the Commissioners would then be able to make a decision, while suggesting that she is aware of instances where, “they have sometimes written to a member saying that we need additional information.”Teixeira told media operatives that she recalls having to give a list of personal assets such as furniture, jewellery and cutlery, among other items.
