Lack of funds stumps work of Integrity body

THE Integrity Commission does not even have the funds to pay process servers to serve court documents to public officials who have breached the Integrity in Public Life Act by not filing their annual declarations of income and assets, lamented the Integrity Commission annual report 2022.

The report was laid in the House of Representatives last April. Under the act, the commission questions inconsistencies between an official's earnings and assets as being possible indicators of corruption.

In the report the commission urged an expansion of its remit to include all judges/magistrates, teachers, police officers, diplomats and public servants.

However, it also said it has had to restrict its work even under its existing scope of duties, owing to insufficient funding to hire enough staff to do its job properly.

In his chairman's report, Prof Rajendra Ramlogan quoted a Mexican president saying corruption was linked to crime.

The chairman said, "Undoubtedly, although the nation is growing increasingly despondent about the state of crime with its spiralling murder rate, we cannot lose sight of the crime of corruption, which can eviscerate our economy and ultimately our social well-being.

"To participate in the simplest public service offerings, bribes have become commonplace.

"As a nation, we must ensure that there is integrity in public life. The lack of integrity in governance can only serve to amputate our very souls."

Ramlogan cited a 2021 US State Department Report which said TT had anti-corruption laws but these were not enforced effectively, allowing some officials to engage in corrupt practices with impunity. Alleging corruption at many levels of governance, the report said, "Opaque public procurement practices were a concern."

Citing the UN's estimate of five per cent of a country's GDP being lost to corruption, the report said TT's earnings of US$500 billion from 1962-2019 suggested US$25 billion lost to graft.

The report said the commission had met a "critical situation" regarding the non-filing of declarations by public officials.

"Due to institutional constraints, the 15th commission took a decision to limit its enforcement actions to six years."

Consequently, it was focusing on 1,066 people in public life who had not filed 2,751 outstanding declarations for 2014-2019.

By late 2022, the commission had sought court action against 2,618 officials for outstanding declarations. Some 1,323 court orders were obtained, of which 478 were served, resulting in 457 declarations being filed in compliance. By 2022 year-end, some 800 court orders in all had been served.

The commission sent 37 files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), although the report also noted "a significant history of difficulties" in developing a co-operation mechanism with the Office of the DPP.

The report said declarations should be examined within six months of submission, in contrast to past periods of up to 17 years.

By 2022 year-end, 1,451 declarations remained to be examined (presumably filed in 2022.)

For prior years, the report said, "The most troubling feature of compliance is the estimated 5,000 outstanding declarations and statements of registrable interests (including filed and not filed) that are expected to be certified for the period of 2014-2021.

"An audit of persons in public life filing declarations and statements of registrable interests has further revealed an unsatisfactory state of affairs, with 953 declarations and statements of registrable interests for the period of 2014-2016 not having been reviewed by the compliance unit.

"This was even more troubling since ex-parte proceedings are being taken against persons in public life for the said period for failing to file their declarations while the commission itself failed to examine declarations from persons in public life filed for the said period."

In a special project to rectify this all, three assistant compliance analysts were hired on contract, resulting in "a notable improvement" in the certification of declarations. Compared to 539 certificates of compliance done by the commission for 2020, some 1,070 were done for 2022.

Under "administration," the report bitterly lamented budgetary constraints, using terms like "stranglehold" and "suffocate."

"The commission faces a financial stranglehold, owing to the deficient and significantly depleted budget, which suffocates the efforts of the commission to perform its statutory duties.

"The drastic depletion of the budget can be observed by comparing $26 million allocated to the commission in 2015 with the figure of $8.6 million allocated in 2023." The latter sum was "woefully inadequate," the report said.

It estimated $4.3 million for staffing for 2022-2023.

The report said, "At present there are several open positions in the commission which cannot be filled due to lack of funding. This has severely affected the progress of the Investigations Unit in particular. The unit has a total of 44 active investigations dating back to 2013 and has only closed ten as at December 2022, as more human resource is needed to bring closure to matters at hand."

The commission recalled the Solicitor General quoting the Integrity Act: “The commission shall be provided with adequate staff for the prompt and efficient discharge of its functions under the act.”

The report lamented, "Despite what the act clearly states, the commission has been provided with a restricted budget that cannot carry the commission to meet its staffing expenses for the year 2023 and beyond."
It predicted job losses.
"The commission predicts that the failure of granting additional funding will lead to the end of contract employment for several staff members as the commission will not be in a position to remunerate persons."

The commission said it had "slashed costs in every conceivable area." This included providing its own refreshments for meetings, undertaking no foreign travel, getting pro-bono help from a doctoral student, using competitive tendering, and accessing free training by the FBI.

The report said additional fees were required to employ process servers to serve ex-parte actions to offenders.

"Given the current funds allocated to expenditure, which is a mere $45,000, the commission is incapable of serving the documents.

This thwarts the statutory functions of the commission and allows people to violate the legislation by continuing non-compliance.

The commission said its investigations inevitably centre on powerful individuals who have resources such as Senior Counsel, but not so the commission.

"With the understanding that hiring just one Senior Counsel to assist in a recent matter of great public interest, cost approximately $90,000, in addition to VAT, it is inconceivable that the commission can ensure that supplemental legal advice can be obtained as that must also come from the current funds allocated to expenditure, which is $45,000, the same sum to be spent on process servers."

Charting a way forward, the commission proposed an amendment to the act to bring under its remit "all persons exercising public functions in all state entities."

The report said, "It is being proposed that 'persons exercising public functions' include all persons holding office under the Public Service, Judicial and Legal Service, Police Service, Teaching Service and Statutory Authorities’ Service Commission, members of the Diplomatic Service, advisers to the Government, local authority and anybody (whether corporate or unincorporated).”

The commission advocated to gain an independent power to report matters to the DPP, regarding certain state-enterprise employees who were not within the commission's remit, as they are not defined as being in public life or exercising public functions under the act.

"This amendment will ensure that no criminal deeds go unpunished."

The commission said its submissions to Cabinet in 2018, 2020 and 2021 had got no responses, the report said, but its submission in November 2022 got a reply seeking revisions which it sent in on November 28, 2022, but with the commission now still awaiting a response.