Atherley supports Integrity Bill; wants commission members to maintain confidentiality

By Anesta Henry

Former Opposition Leader, Bishop Joseph Atherley, has embraced the revamped Integrity in Public Life Bill, but he is hoping that the people appointed to serve on the six-member Integrity Commission are themselves persons of integrity.

Responding to news that the Commission is to be established under the new legislation, Atherley called for measures to be put in place to ensure that when persons declare their assets to the entity, the information is treated confidentially.

“You are reporting to an entity such that its oversight of your affairs will not necessarily, in a malicious way, become public business. We should not have a situation where because a man has declared his assets that it is known to all and that it is subject to malicious use, especially for political ends or any other ends. 

“The oversight mechanism should be such that it serves two purposes. One, it is a mechanism which itself reflects integrity by those who are party to or who compose it. And secondly, you should not have a situation where people’s business is just all over the place. 

“We live in a very dangerous age of social media and other means of communication and all I am saying is let’s have a serious mechanism that can do proper oversight and stand the test of time itself. But also let us have a mechanism such that the public can be satisfied that when people declare their assets that their information is not maliciously bandied across the country,” Atherley stressed.

The Bill, laid in Parliament on Tuesday, provided for an integrity commission that would consist of a chairman, an attorney-at-law, a chartered or certified accountant, a member of the clergy who is appointed by the President after consultation with the Prime Minister, a person appointed by the President on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition, a person appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister, and a person appointed by the President on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition.

Members of the Commission will hold office for an initial period of three years and be eligible for reappointment, according to the bill. In order for a person to qualify for the position of chairman, they must have “held office as a judge of a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in some part of the Commonwealth or a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any such court”.

The chairman is to be appointed by the President after consultation with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition while the attorney-at-law is to be appointed by the President after consultation with the Council of the Barbados Bar Association. That person is to have “at least 10 years’ standing” and his or her name must appear on the Roll of Attorneys-at-law pursuant to the Legal Profession Act, Cap. 370A.

Meanwhile, Atherley said he was pleased that revised Bill outlined heavy fines for those found guilty of an offence.

According to the Bill, specified individuals face the possibility of being fined as much as $50 000 or in some cases, they can be jailed for up to one year, if they are found guilty of an offence. Additionally, those individuals captured under the bill could have to pay a fine for failure to report a gift worth over $2 500.

“I remember when this Bill came to Parliament at some point, there was a change in the amounts attached to fines to be applied for breaches of the regulations. I am glad that the numbers have been put back to where they were originally and that the fines in fact can constitute a significant deterrent. 

“I support the attempt to bring back the Bill to the Parliament, when it came to the Lower House last time I voted for it notwithstanding the fact that I had a couple of concerns. One concern was with respect to the exclusion of people who held judicial office, and two, with respect to the issue of the blind trust.

“It has been long in coming and I was never fully persuaded that the Government during the last attempt to pass it in the Senate was serious about it because if they had been serious they would have made sure that they had the numbers in the Senate to vote for it,” he said. 

Atherley said he strongly believes that the blind trust must be properly managed. 

He said the blind trust is used in several jurisdictions to address a potential conflict of interest, however, some people in other jurisdictions have been able “to work around” it.

“That business of the blind trust is one to which we have to pay perhaps some further attention…it is one on which there are still some questions,” Atherley said. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb