The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Disclosure Commission Chairman Myles Laroda says the group needs to be independent of the government, a change that will give the body the “teeth” it needs.

According to Mr Laroda, the law governing the commission has virtually gone unchanged since coming into force and should offer a remedy to modern day challenges.

The Free National Movement in its 2017 Manifesto pledged to amend the Public Disclosure Act to broaden its scope of application to include campaign finance reform and to make provision for direct referral to an independent prosecutor.

However, with a little over a year left in the Minnis administration’s term in office it appears the needed changes to the Act have not been prioritised.

Asked recently about progress in this regard, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the government tabled a bill in Parliament that honours the FNM’s campaign promise.

But he said the real question was when the Integrity Commission Bill would be debated in the lower chamber – a matter “yet to be determined” he said.

Mr Laroda said this is an important step if matters of anti-corruption practices are to be taken seriously.

In fact, he said since 2017 there have been recommendations made to strengthen these kinds of laws.

“I know that they tabled the Integrity (Bill) that is supposed to repeal the Public Disclosure Act,” Mr Laroda said during a recent interview when asked about changes to the legislation. “I think I may have said in 2015 there was a report that made certain recommendations to strengthen our anti-corruption laws. I think that was in 2017.

“We would have made recommendations that the government follow those recommendations that were put in. At that time the Prime Minister had given his word verbally that he was in agreement with a lot of those things in the recommendation.”

He also said: “So this is very important. The Public Disclosure Act has not been updated. There have been a lot of changes that were done.

“There are certain positions in the public service that did not exist at the time, so we need to really have a piece of legislation to actually put teeth to this.

“The Public Disclosure Commission is like a department in the Cabinet office, but there should be independence. We should not be dependent on the government.

“A lot of its members who are subject to the Public Disclosure Act are the ones to be gazetting this information so there should be an update.”

The updates, Mr Laroda said, would clamp down on officials who are not compliant with the Public Disclosure Act.

Mr Laroda told The Tribune that senior civil servants are less compliant with legally mandated disclosures than members of Parliament and senators.

Despite challenges sparked by COVID-19, he said both groups were largely in line with the demands of the Act.

“There were some who requested extensions who were granted but the overall numbers were still very high,” he said regarding the submitted disclosures. “Everyone did for the years 2017, 2018 and there is one outstanding former senator and one outstanding MP for 2019.

“So, 2020 letters have all gone out and they have up until before March 1 to submit those.

“We have had to send out letters for people who have been compliant but may need information and that’s not irregular. There may be situations where bank information or insurance information wasn’t provided or clarified, but in terms of the declaration forms they’ve all been done with the exception of the one former senator and MP.”

Asked about the general compliance of senior civil servants, the chairman said: “There are still quite a few outstanding on that front.

“As a matter of fact, the politicians meaning the senators and the MPs seem to have been doing a much better job of sending in their declarations than some of the senior civil servants.”

The future of the Public Disclosures Commission must also include a technological facelift, Mr Laroda told The Tribune.

“We are living in an age of technology now where forms should be able to be sent out electronically. There should be a website giving out information and some of the things we are talking about commerce and moving into the modern age. The Act is still on an archaic stage.

“It needs a lot of modernising. Coming towards disclosure time the public only knows what’s going on as the reporters would call and ask questions about who all disclosed and who didn’t.

“But I think what’s missing is the actual information itself. Because the whole idea is to show what your worth was before you come in to show what it was during your period in office and to show your worth when you left. The public can make a determination from there on.”