By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC disclosures from parliamentarians were flying in like “hotcakes”, according to Public Disclosure Commission Chairman Myles Laroda yesterday.

House of Assembly Speaker Halson Moultrie warned parliamentarians concerning their obligation to meet today’s deadline during a sitting of the lower chamber on Wednesday.

“Vast majority were coming in like hotcakes today,” Mr Laroda said. “We are far ahead of last year. Last year we gave a month extension.”

The Public Disclosure Act empowers only two people to act on delinquent filings: the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. Either of them can publish the information through a communication in the House of Assembly or cause for it to be laid in the Senate. Either can authorise that the information be presented to the attorney general or commissioner of police so those who failed to disclose could face a penalty.

The penalty for not disclosing is a $10,000 fine and/or up to two years in prison.

Last year, the deadline was extended to the end of March but three people, two senators and a parliamentarian, still failed to make their disclosures in time.

Yesterday, Mr Laroda added: “The three outstanding by the time (commission) met they came in that same day, so they were all in.”