This country’s Members of Parliament created the Integrity Commission so it would fail, economist and former deputy Central Bank governor Terrence Farrell has said.
“The commission had been dogged by controversy from the very start. When that legislation was proclaimed, I wrote then that it was going to fail. I am not sure that our legislators had any good intent,” Farrell said.
Farrell made the statement during an online event hosted by the Caribbean Corporate Governance Institute’s (CCGI) Governance Week 2022.
During the event, former chairman of the Integrity Commission Ken Gordon gave a presentation titled “Recommendations to Improve the Integrity in Public Life Act.”
Farrell said when the legislation was presented in Parliament, “every single MP” voted for it.
“But they set it up in a way that it was guaranteed to fail,” Farrell stated.
Gordon disagreed, saying, “I don’t think it was destined to fail, but I don’t think they thought it through.”
Farrell, however, argued that the MPs’ bad intent was shown by them undermining the commission and any other watchdog body.
“They create the Financial Intelligence Unit and where do they put it? In the Ministry of Finance,” he said.
“Yet, this is a body that investigates matters related to finance!” Farrell added.
Farrell also noted that the Integrity in Public Life (Amendment) Bill 2014, prepared by the Gordon-led Commission, highlighted what was missing from the 2005 Act.
In his presentation, Gordon listed some of the amendments to the act that had been submitted to Cabinet.
These included means for enforcing the provisions of Section 5 (27/5) and Section 34 of the act, which give the commission the power to:
• authorise investigations
• summon witnesses
• subpoena persons
• search and seizure
Also recommended were whistle-blower provisions and arrangements for exchanging information between the Board of Inland Revenue, Police Service, Customs, Immigration and the FIU.
Farrell agreed with Gordon that the requirement for members of public bodies to declare assets to the IC was counter-productive.
“It’s a waste of time,” he said.
“People refuse to declare and nothing has happened. The Cabinet has ignored the recommendations because it doesn’t want a strong, independent Integrity Commission with strong investigative powers.”