IC slams Chuck for advising MPs to withhold spouses’ information
Published:Thursday | January 16, 2025 | 12:14 AMEdmond Campbell and Jovan Johnson/Senior Staff Reporters
Retired Justice Seymour Panton, the chairman of the Integrity Commission (IC), has scolded Justice Minister Delroy Chuck for advising his parliamentary colleagues not to comply with a critical provision in the IC Act that requires them to furnish information about their spouses’ earnings to the anti-corruption body.
In a sharp rebuke of the senior government minister and lawmaker yesterday, Panton said for Chuck to advise his colleagues to break the law “may well be itself an offence”.
“What sort of example is he setting for public officers?” Panton questioned, adding that in some countries, the justice minister would have been relieved of his ministerial responsibility after such an admission.
The IC chairman reminded the country that the IC Act, which was passed by parliamentarians, including the justice minister, provides for certain declarations to be made by parliamentarians and public officers. He said a failure to do so carries penalties of fines or imprisonment.
“I am very disappointed that he is confirming a view that he is not serious about good governance. After all, it is not difficult to see that it is very easy to hide income and assets in the names of relatives,” Panton argued.
“I urge all parliamentarians and public officers to do the right thing. That is obey the law!” he concluded.
In the past, Chuck courted controversy when he declared that the Integrity Commission had no “integrity”.
‘Inciting MPs to break the law’
In a terse response to Chuck’s latest utterances, founding principal director of National Integrity Action Professor Trevor Munroe said: “Unless clarified or wrongly represented, Chuck is advising/inciting MPs to break the law.”
Section 39 of the IC Act states that “subject to the provisions of this Act, every person who, on or after the appointed day, is a parliamentarian or public official, shall submit to the director of information and complaints, a statutory declaration of his assets and liabilities and his income in the form set out in the Third Schedule.
Further, Section 40 of the IC Act states that “a statutory declaration shall include such particulars as are known to the declarant of the income, assets and liabilities of the spouse and children, where applicable of the declarant”.
‘Limits’ on probes
During a meeting of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee in Gordon House on Tuesday, Chuck raised concerns about requests being made by the IC regarding the salaries of the spouses of some of his colleagues.
“Why is the Integrity Commission asking members to indicate the salaries of their spouse or sometimes of their children? I don’t know if this is something that is appropriate because I have advised the relevant members, let them know your spouse is not prepared to divulge their salary,” he said.
Chuck also suggested that the joint select committee reviewing the IC law would make it clear “what limits can be put in terms of investigations”.
At the same time, all eyes are on government members on Parliament’s Joint Select Committee reviewing the IC Act over what proposals will be pushed to change the law of the anti-corruption agency following a private meeting last week Thursday, hosted by vocal critic Everald Warmington.
The meeting also comes amid heightening interest in the commission ahead of potential leadership changes at the anti-corruption watchdog between February and July.
Warmington, a member of the joint select committee and the member of parliament for St Catherine South Western, has called the IC a “rogue” body and proposed a series of changes that would reduce the powers of the anti-corruption agency.
Although confirming the meeting to The Gleaner, Warmington declined comment on the issues discussed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know who you got that from. We had a private discussion, and that was that,” he told The Gleaner on Monday. “Any meeting public is when we go to Parliament and the committee meets.”
He was referring to the joint select committee meeting held on Tuesday. The legislation was passed in 2017 by the Andrew Holness administration.
The committee members include Warmington; Committee Chairman and Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett; Justice Minister Delroy Chuck; Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr; House Speaker Juliet Holness; Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte; and two persons from the Opposition - Finance Spokesman Julian Robinson and Energy Spokesman Phillip Paulwell.
Chuck declined to comment on Monday, saying that “we had a private meeting as we do regularly on several matters”.
Malahoo-Forte said she arrived late and left early when asked about outcomes from the meeting. She said it was “a general rule” for government members of joint select committees to “meet from time to time to assess the work being done in the review of bills or acts of Parliament”.