Integrity Commission to issue statement regarding declarations by public servants
Published:Friday | July 16, 2021 | 3:59 PM
The Integrity Commission is to issue a statement this weekend on reports that it is interrogating senior civil servants including permanent secretaries over their 2019 income and assets declarations.
Craig Beresford, the commission's director of information and complaints, has written to at least eight permanent secretaries among other government employees about their statutory declarations from two years ago, the Jamaica Observer reported Friday.
The officials were reportedly asked to indicate whether all their assets, liabilities and income in Jamaica and overseas were included in the 2019 submissions.
They were given two weeks to respond, or to sign the letter to say the declarations are correct, said the news article, which quoted an unnamed public servant accusing the commission of a "witch-hunt."
Responding to Gleaner queries, the commission said its chairman Justice Seymour Panton is to issue a statement on the issue over this weekend.
In May, The Sunday Gleaner revealed that the Integrity Commission had been investigating a senior official at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information over an undeclared asset.
The official was reportedly asked to explain in late 2020 the assets which included properties in Florida in the United States.
This latest development comes almost two weeks after the commission revealed in a report to Parliament that it is investigating two lawmakers and six public officials for illicit enrichment.
READ: Guilty lawmakers must come clean
It also said it had referred two legislators and six public officials for prosecution for submitting false information on their income and assets.
The law bars the commission from giving details on its probes including names of officials until it tables a report in Parliament.
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