Certification may require more info, third-party checks – integrity director

Director of Information and Complaints at the Integrity Commission, Craig Beresford, shed light Tuesday on the certification of statutory declarations, which signals that the anti-corruption body has examined the income, assets, and liabilities of designated public servants and is satisfied that the documents are duly completed.

Beresford, addressing Tuesday’s sitting of a joint select committee set up to review the Integrity Commission Act, 2017, said that he was responsible for examining all statutory declarations.

Further, he said the director also has the task of making enquiries as he considers necessary to determine the accuracy of a statutory declaration. He explained that the process may involve third-party checks on the information provided.

Section 42 of the legislation, which governs this process, also gives the director of information and complaints the mandate to examine a statutory declaration to ensure that it complies with the requirements of the parent law.

“It also speaks to the director requesting further information, and he may. He does not have to,” said Beresford.

“And he also wants to determine the accuracy of the information submitted in the statutory declaration,” he said.

According to Beresford, the legislation indicates that once the director of information is satisfied, he “makes a recommendation to the commission” on the statutory declaration.

The explanation arose from a question by St Andrew South East Member of Parliament Julian Robinson who wanted to know what constitutes a certification of a statutory declaration.

On Sunday, The Gleaner sent a query to chairman of the Integrity Commission, retired Justice Seymour Panton, seeking a response to a tweet by the commission indicating that it was unable to publish the statutory declaration of Prime Minister Andrew Holness as the information he provided to the agency had not yet been certified.

The statutory declaration of Opposition Leader Mark Golding was published on Sunday by the commission, which is a requirement under the law.

The tweet stated that the “commission is not in a position to certify it, and in the circumstances will be unable to comment any further on the issue”.

After clarity was sought on its tweet, the commission again stated: “The position is that we have no comment to make on the matter.”

On Tuesday, Edmund Bartlett, chairman of the joint select committee, cautioned members of the Integrity Commission on how they should respond to Robinson’s query.

“Your intervention, Director, is very critical in this regard, and bearing in mind that this meeting is not a private meeting and it is therefore in the public space, so if indeed you are under constraints in terms of your own utterances on the matter, I am not sure, Member, if you wanted to either rephrase or otherwise review the question that is put to the IC,” said Bartlett.

But Robinson intervened saying he was not asking about any specific case because the so-called gag clauses would prohibit that.

He then queried the circumstances “generally” under which a statutory declaration is or is not certified.

What the law says

42.-“(2) Where, upon examination of a statutory declaration, the director of information and complaints is of the opinion that further information is required in respect of the statutory declaration, he may, by notice in writing, request the declarant to submit such other information at such time as may be specified in the notice, and the declarant shall submit such information within the specified period.”

42.-“(3) Where, upon examination of a statutory declaration, the director of information and complaints is satisfied that the statutory declaration has been duly completed, he shall so inform the commission and the commission shall - (a) cause to be issued to the public official or parliamentarian, as the case may be, confirmation thereof in writing; …”

42.-“(4) Where the director of information and complaints is of the opinion that an investigation in relation to a statutory declaration is necessary for the purposes of this act, he shall refer the matter to the commission for further and necessary action.