Integrity Commission reports high compliance among parliamentarians filing statutory declarations

 

The Integrity Commission says despite public perception, the political directorate has upheld a high level of compliance in filing statutory declarations.

 

Addressing a meeting of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee on Tuesday afternoon, the Commission's Director of Information and Complaints Craig Beresford disclosed that members of the judiciary have recorded a relatively high non-compliance rate.

 

He said the Commission has been able to move compliance from 20 per cent to over 80 per cent.

 

But the parliamentary group, he noted, has a "very good record" in terms of compliance. 

 

In 2020, for instance, he said 107 people from that group were required to submit statutory declarations and 106 did so on time. There was 100 per cent compliance. 

 

Some 103 people from the parliamentary group were required to file in 2021, with 102 of them making submissions.

 

 

Meawhile, Mr. Beresford said an electronic declaration system will be introduced which will allow for efficient analysis and examination of the submitted statuary declaration documents.

 

"The issue that we have is that over the years, persons have not been taking  the process very seriously. So we find that a lot of declarations, we only have the name on it. Nothing at all. A lot of persons are not focusing on completing it properly, which means that we have to write to them and require more information," he explained. 

 

"So with the implementation of the electronic declaration system, persons now would be forced to attach the required supporting documents. Once that is done and we have all the declarations, all we need to do is third party checks. That process will be implemented, hopefully, for the next statutory declaration period once we get the necessary approval. So we would look at those declarations. The system actually does a bit of analysis for us. So a lot of the processes will be automated," added Mr. Beresford.

 

More than 40,000 public officials are required to file statutory declarations.