KINGSTON, Jamaica — Councillors of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) on Tuesday, voted unanimously in support of a resolution from the St Mary Municipal Corporation (SMMC), seeking to place a three-year limit on the statutory declarations the Integrity Commission can request from parliamentarians and public servants in trying to root out corruption.

The KSAMC the resolution was discussed at the council meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre.

The corporation took issue with the fact that the Corruption (Prevention) Act and its subsidiary regulations, while giving the time frame for the presentation of the declaration for the year preceding, does not have a timeframe as to how far in the past the commission can request a public servant to submit declarations and/or supporting documents for review

It said the resolution pointed to requests from the Integrity Commission in recent times for public servants to “present declarations for upwards of 12 years”.

“It is egregious to request persons to compile forms and source information that far back as most of these records, if not kept have been destroyed or cannot be located. There are even instances where the documents can no longer be sourced from entities because their records are not kept for those long periods,” the resolution stated.

Three years would be a reasonable time frame to “be inserted in the Act and/or its regulations as the prescribed period for which enquiries or request for post declarations and support documents can be made,” the resolution argued.

The resolution stated that the “Integrity Commission uses the presentation and review of Statutory Declarations of Assets and Liabilities of public servants as one of its vehicles to investigate and assess possible acts of corruption by assessing assets, liabilities and incomes.”

Claudienne Edwards