| The declaration of financial assets is fundamental in addressing the issues of accountability in public office and that of the probity of public officials. This notion was emphasised by Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, yesterday.Dr Luncheon’s comments came in wake of queries of the constitutionality of the recent exhortation by President Bharrat Jagdeo that all Members of Parliament (MPs) declare their assets to the Integrity Commission. Defaulters,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, the President had declared, will have their names published in the media.According to the Cabinet Secretary, the Integrity Act of 1997 clearly provides the basis for the action that the President undertook to put into place, and also provides for even more dire consequences.“It is not only that the Act makes provision to name and shame defaulters after they have been warned and their compliance solicited. It also makes provision, if they still remain recalcitrant, for them to be summarily charged if they default, and finally, be convicted.”It was pointed out by Dr Luncheon that the President’s exhortation was indeed within the limits of the law, and should be taken seriously, not only by defaulting MPs, but also by those others defined in the Act as persons in public life. “They had 11 years to put their houses in order, both at the level of the commission as well as those whose appointments are notified in the schedule. We need to put our house in order, and if the declaration of financial assets is fundamental…we will have to be firm on this occasion, so that 11 years later we are not in the same position.”According to Dr Luncheon,NFL Jerseys Supply, the now ruling administration was forced to repeal a 1991 Bill that sought to determine the assets of public officials.He pointed out that the Bill was designed in such a way that only the President would see the reports; that there was no provision for publication of defaulters. Those were some of the reasons, Dr Luncheon said, for the Bill to be repealed.“The administration rejected it at its birth,NFL Jerseys China Cheap, and we succeeded in terminating its life shortly thereafter. That Bill was repealed in its entirety. It was an unusual piece of legislation that sought to create an image that, at the end of the day, really didn’t exist. As soon as the first opportunity presented itself around where a consensus could be maintained, that Bill was repealed and the 1997 Bill was put in place.”However, the current Bill,Authentic Jerseys China, Dr Luncheon said, provides for the Statute of Limitation of five years or more, beyond which defaulters cannot be charged or prosecuted.Responding to questions about the call made by the President last year to have the Auditor-General look into the assets of Customs officers,NFL Jerseys From China, the Cabinet Secretary said, “It is perhaps of some concern that these legalistic considerations are being brought to the fore.”“Sometimes, one wonders how sincere is the move in the public domain by some beating their chests on the grounds of accountability and transparency and such like in the face of a patently necessary intervention for the public to be aware of the findings and for the representatives of the people to have an opportunity to examine and even take a position.”Dr Luncheon said that it is quite easy to interpret the certain actions as efforts to obscure and frustrate the thrust of the administration on bringing matters into the public domain.“Many of these “holier than thou” protesters of the President’s exhortations, in the same breath, are demanding repetitively transparency and the ending of corruption in public offices, and a very fundamental step that is embraced suddenly becomes an issue.“We need carefully to examine these machinations,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, and to say to those who are responsible that it does look like double-standards and it does appear as though public pronouncement of transparency and accountability are indeed being held hostage to political and other considerations.” |
