by Linda Straker
- Commission issued notices to 16 members of new administration
- PM Mitchell, Joseph Andall and Dennis Cornwall filed Declarations on 1 December 2022
- Prime Minister would prefer electronic filing
Eleven Cabinet Members sought an extension date to file their Declaration of Assets, Income, and Liabilities from the Office of the Integrity Commission. They all received a 2-week extension and are now scheduled to file on 15 December 2022.
All 14 members were expected to file their declaration with the office on 1 December 2022. A press release issued by the Office of Integrity Commission late Thursday evening said that it received Declarations of Assets, Income, and Liabilities from Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and 2 other cabinet members on Thursday, 1 December 2022.
In accordance with the Integrity in Public Life Act No. 24 of 2013, the Commission issued notices to 16 members of the new administration providing them with a date for filing as well as detailed information on the filing process.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell who also serves as Minister for National Security, Information, Home Affairs, Public Administration and Disaster Management, along with Joseph Andall, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Export Development, and Dennis Cornwall, Minister for Infrastructure and Physical Development, Public Utilities, Civil Aviation, and Transportation, filed their Declarations with the Commission.
Receiving the Declarations on behalf of the Commission were Chairperson Lady A Anande Trotman Joseph and Commissioner Justin Campbell. Speaking to the media after filing his Declaration, Prime Minister Mitchell said that he would prefer if the filing was done electronically. “In one sense, [it is] simple but a little exhausting because it forces you to take a look at your life and list everything that you basically own…I would say one improvement is that I would like it to be electronic, rather than paper,” he said.
The Chairperson of the Integrity Commission was pleased to see the Prime Minister taking the lead in his Cabinet as the first to file his documents with the Commission. “Today we’re very happy that the Cabinet has begun to declare to us as other cabinets twice before have also done.”
The Chairman added that the filing of Declarations is only one part of the process; the other part is the Compliance process which is undertaken by a specified Compliance Officer at the Commission. “We receive these Declarations but we go further. We carry out a compliance exercise…we check to see if what they are saying is true against what is in our public registry.”
