The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A governance reformer has said the Integrity Commission Bill should be passed to allow for an independent body to be able to scrutinise and vet the disclosures of election candidates.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, said the bill proposes to set up a commission to look at and receive any claims or concerns related to disclosures, conflict of interest or corruption.

The bill was tabled in 2017 with the Ombudsman Bill, but they were never debated or passed.

The validity of disclosures filed by election candidates have come under question after their financial declarations were gazetted by the Parliamentary Registration Department this week.

In 2017, officials from the Parliamentary Registration Department and Public Disclosure Commission said they were not responsible for verifying the data put forward by candidates, insisting that responsibility lies with other government agencies.

East Grand Bahama candidate and Kingdom Government Movement leader Kevin King declared his net worth as $53,129,820, with the bulk of this figure coming from securities, making him the wealthiest person on the list of election candidates according to his disclosures. Yet, he evaded questions from The Tribune on Monday to clarify his net worth.

Meanwhile, several incumbent candidates declared net worths which showed their finances had increased since they last ran for office in 2017.

More than 55 millionaires are on the list of election candidates.

Mr Aubry said the level of change that people are looking for is a more open environment—one where information is provided not just once but on an ongoing basis. He pointed to the Integrity Commission Bill that would have established this independent body to scrutinise these disclosures.

“So as people come into public office, that initial declaration is going to be used and tracked by a group that will ensure that any issue that comes up and trends that are noted that they can be looked at and vetted….So that process is again another benefit this bill would bring forward and it builds trust and it brings more comfort,” he said.

“This disclosure at the onset of election and this disclosure ongoing once someone has been elected they should be looked at, tracked, understood. Clearly folks that are going towards office in our current scenario trends towards those who have more resources and that doesn’t necessarily mean anything negative.”

He highlighted the limitation of the Parliamentary Registration Department in verifying disclosures.

“If you look at the Parliamentary Registration (Department), their skill set is and what they’re looking to do - verifying these pieces of information is not what they’ve established or step up to do structurally,” he said.

“If The Bahamas establishes the Integrity Commission, through legislation, as the body to annually receive and review disclosures by elected officials, it would make sense to incorporate the verification and vetting of disclosures by candidates seeking election as well. “In this way the process can be similar and can be sufficiently reviewed and tracked over the period of the elected officials service. This can ensure consistency, openness and accountability at the level that the public deserves. The only requirement for this is the passage of the Integrity Commission Bill with adjustment to include this provision.”