THE Corruption Prevention Commission (CPC) says that between its inception in 2001 and March 2016, it has reported 1,164 delinquent public servants to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for failing to furnish annual statutory declarations.

The CPC said that the DPP’s office has initiated action against 562 of the delinquent government employees, of which 456 have been found to be delinquent to date, and fines totalling $6.7 million imposed by the courts between then and March 31, 2016.

Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) were the majority of those reported. The JCF had 647 members reported since then, and 349 have already been taken before the court and paid fines totalling $3.8 million.

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) followed with 76 reported, but only 11 fined a total of $30,000, followed by the National Works Agency (NWA) with 71 reported and 38 fined a total of $609,000.

Twenty-nine parish council (municipal corporations) employees were also included in the list, of which 26 have been taken to court and fined a total of $720,000.

For 2015/16, only 55 per cent, or 35,000, of eligible employees had sent in declarations up to March last year. So far, 93 have been reported to the DPP for delinquency in furnishing statutory declaration of assets, liabilities and income to the commission by the due date.

Forty-seven of these public employees have had their cases disposed of and paid court fines totalling $845,000. The remaining matters are at various stages in the courts.

The commission says, however, that it hopes that with the Government pursuing the merger of the three anti-corruption agencies — the Office of the Contractor General, the Corruption Prevention Commission and the Integrity Commission — a number of recommendations it has made to improve the situation will be taken on board.

The CPC said that, in the meantime, it continues to work with the DPP and heads of government departments and agencies in an effort to enforce compliance with the provisions of the Corruption Prevention Act.