IC can’t query fund sources for MPs’ prior purchases – complaints director

The Integrity Commission (IC) has moved to set the record straight about information it has requested from parliamentarians on assets they acquired, in some instances before becoming legislators.

Delroy Chuck, a member of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee (ICOC), said yesterday that parliamentarians had shared with him requests from the IC for information about assets they acquired years ago, in some cases dating back decades.

However, Director of Information and Complaints Joeth Jones said the IC has no jurisdiction to request information from parliamentarians about the source of funds used to acquire assets in the past.

“What is being required of you is the purchase price of the property or the motor vehicle,” Jones said, adding that the third schedule of the law requires public officials to provide the purchase price of an asset, regardless of how long ago it was acquired.

She was responding to queries from members of the ICOC, who met at Gordon House yesterday.

Meanwhile, Director of Investigation Kevon Stephenson has responded to claims by Chuck that the commission has reported on categories of public officials being investigated.

According to Chuck, too many IC reports state that the commission is conducting investigations “and at the end of the day nothing comes of it”.

Chuck, who is also the minister of justice and constitutional affairs, argued that “when you put out in a report that so many people are being investigated… it raises a perception rather than the reality that there is corruption out there that you are still investigating”.

However, Stephenson made it clear that the commission had never published a report stating that it was investigating any category of public sector worker.

In response, Stephenson said the second schedule of the Integrity Commission Act (ICA) guides the anti-corruption body on what should be included in its annual report.

He explained that the annual report gives the number of categories of public officials who are “referred for investigation”.

“The director makes reference to the nature of the matters referred but in no report at all have we ever indicated that these categories of persons are being investigated. Maybe it is interpreted in that way, but I want to make it very clear that there is a distinction,” he told members of the ICOC.

Stephenson said that when a referral is made to the director of investigation, there is no certainty that it will lead to a probe, as the information must first be assessed and the matter may be set aside during that process.

“Even so, if during the course of an investigation there is insufficient basis to continue the investigation as reflected under Section 54, then the director of investigation has the duty to discontinue the investigation... and that is not made public.”

Stephenson noted that while he was not recommending changes to the schedule of the legislation to specify what should be included in the annual report, parliamentarians could make adjustments if they were dissatisfied with the reporting on categories of public officials referred for investigation.

Jones said the IC’s annual report outlines the work of the various sections of her division. She said the commission reports on compliance and referrals, and that the information includes what is perceived to be “good and bad in the public domain”.

Jones noted that parliamentarians had a higher compliance rate than other public sector groups in submitting their statutory declarations.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com