The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Cabinet Minister Loftus Roker yesterday criticised today’s leaders claiming that they are “not worthy” to stand at the forefront of this country because they have failed to consistently turn over their annual financial disclosures, which he claimed “breeds corruption” at the highest levels of the public sector.

He asserted, during an interview with The Tribune, that public officials have for far too long repeatedly broken the law as Bahamians have failed to hold elected officials and high-ranking civil servants accountable.

Mr Roker insisted that he was not targeting any political party, but speaking as a concerned Bahamian who is “worried” about the path this country is taking.

Under the Public Disclosures Act - before the first day of March each year - all senators and members of the House of Assembly must declare their income, assets and liabilities, as well as those of their spouses and children for the previous year.

This information, by law, should be published in the Gazette.

“The leaders in my view are not worthy to be leaders because we have a law that says by a certain time every year every politician and every civil servant must make a public disclosure,” Mr Roker said when he was contacted by The Tribune.

“That hasn’t been done consistently for years because we know it also requires that it be published in the official gazette.

“Let us assume I am a minister and I make $1m this year and next year I make $5m. So how could I go from one to five in a year? If that was disclosed, questions would be asked about it.”

He added: “Nobody from the prime minister to the commissioner does what should be done under the Public Disclosures Act. So the question is how do you expect the small man to adhere to law when the big man with the position or so-called leader doesn’t do it?”

“The problem in our society is that everything is only relevant for only a few days or a week and after a week everyone forgets.

“But failing to do this breeds corruption. There is no doubt about that. Officials should be held accountable,” said the former PLP minister of immigration.

Unfortunately, Mr Roker said Bahamians will suffer from public officials’ failure to do what is right and just.

“When I say something it’s not about the Progressive Liberal Party or the Free National Movement. I am worried about this country. My record would show that I did that when I was a PLP minister because I felt that I had a right then and I have a right now to do so,” Mr Roker said.

In its 2015 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, the US State Department raised the issue of financial disclosures.

On the subject of corruption and government transparency, the report, released this week, noted that there was no independent verification of annual public disclosures from senior public officials, and called the annual submission rate “weak” unless it was an election year.

According to the Public Disclosures Act, any person who does not comply with the law is liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment of not more than two years.