UPDATED: Former PNP MP Vaz to know fate on June 6
Published:Wednesday | May 1, 2024 | 12:12 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Former legislator Dwayne Vaz will know his fate on June 6 after he was bound over after his appearance in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court, where he pleaded guilty to the offence of failing without reasonable cause to provide the information relating to his statutory declarations, by way of notice dated November 3, 2020 and subsequent extension dates November 17, 2020.
From the 'prisoner’s dock', Vaz, on the direction of his attorney said, “Guilty, Your Honour”, after being asked by the clerk to speak up.
Before his plea, his attorney had expressed to Judge Carlo Mason that there was a certain direction her client wanted to go.
“If I may, Your Honour, … this matter is one of great importance, not just to this court, but the manner in which the Integrity Commission has treated this matter. Your Honour, you should have in your file a letter dated May 18, 2021,” Vaz’s lawyer said.
That letter is one which the defendant’s legal intended to use to argue his case, asserting that he discharged his obligations under the act.
Parish judge Mason requested that the clerk give the court the background information regarding the case.
“Mr Vaz, being a former member of parliament from December 1, 2011 to September 2, 2020, as a consequence of that, Your Honour, was required to file statutory declarations for those years, including 2019, 2020 and 2021. He did, and having filed those statutory declarations [in] the year 2019, the director of information and complaints requested further information from Mr Vaz in relation to that statutory declaration pursuant to 43 1(a) of the Integrity Commission Act,” the clerk said.
“The information was requested via a notice or letter dated November 3, 2020 and requested that information be sent by November 16, 2020. Having received no response to that letter, another letter was sent November 17, 2020 with a new deadline of November 20, 2020. Might I indicate that the info requested was regarding to a company by the name of Estellar Global Services.”
The clerk told the presiding judge that was the basis on which Mr Vaz was before the court.
“I will just indicate to the court that the information was subsequently submitted on March 5, 2021 by Mr Vaz. That would have been outside of both the deadline given by the Integrity Commission, and that is basis for why we are here,” the clerk said.
MAY 18TH LETTER
Vaz’s attorney told the court that the prosecution again failed to mention the May 18 letter.
“Your Honour, … what counsel fails to disclose is a letter dated May 18, 2021, which states the Integrity Commission hereby certifies that your statutory declarations as at December 31, 2019 have been examined. Based on the examination, … it appears that the declaration has been duly completed in accordance with the provision of the IC Act,” the attorney said, before she was stopped by the judge.
“I tell you what, I have a full court today and I have only a limited time per matter. As a result, I am going to ask that we set a late May or early June date and I would ask that yourself and Ms Brown (prosecution lawyer) have some mature discussions concerning this matter to see where it is going to go, and on that date .... you can inform the court what your position is,” Judge Mason said.
Shortly after Vaz’s sentencing date was established, Charlton McFarlane, CEO at the Registrar General’s Department (RGD), also pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching the Integrity Commission Act.
McFarlane was charged for failing to file statutory information by April 13 as required by notice of the Integrity Commission Act.
He was also charged for failing without reasonable cause to furnish the commission with a statutory declaration for periods ending December 31, 2022, December 31, 2021, December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019.
McFarlane, also from the prisoner’s dock and who was represented by attorney Claudette Wright, pleaded guilty to all five counts.
Parish Judge Mason said, “That would be five counts of guilty, five times guilty plea. Naturally, the matter will be transferred to Court Six.”
Wright, who was seemingly eager for the matter to be disposed of yesterday, said, “Well, my client has pleaded guilty and we are in the court’s hands ... and are prepared.”
McFarlane was bound over to return to court on May 13.
Both Vaz and McFarlane were among a group of five current or former holders of public office who the IC’s director of corruption prosecution made rulings to charge or prosecute after investigations.
The IC reports were tabled in the House of Parliament last week.
The others are Oral Reid and Trevon Clarke, employees of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation; and George Callaghan, a former CEO of the Sugar Industry Authority.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article included a reference, made by the judge in error, to Dwayne Vaz having bail extended, rather than Vaz being bound over to the next court date)