Cabinet agrees to more transparency for Register of Interests
After two years of resistance to making substantial changes in transparency concerning the interests held by lawmakers and senior public officials, Cabinet has finally agreed to move forward with the Commission of Inquiry’s (COI) recommendation to overhaul the Register of Interests Act.
Effectively, the Register of Interests is a record kept of the financial interests of legislators. Its purpose is to give them the mechanism to publicly declare any private interests which may conflict or may be perceived to conflict with their public duties.
The COI revealed that numerous lawmakers were extremely late in declaring their interests and that some never declared their interests at all. A previous attempt at overhauling the legislation was met with strong resistance from lawmakers, who decided to pass a watered-down and severly restrictive version of the COI’s recommendations to the Act instead. The government also missed a December COI implementation framework deadline for the revised law to include senior public servants.
Cabinet decision
A post-meeting statement from Cabinet’s January 24 meeting showed that the government decided that the Deputy Governor’s Office should provide instructions for amendments to the Register of Interests Act and other pertinent legislation.
The proposed changes include making the Register of Interests for members of the House of Assembly fully accessible to the public at no cost.
Furthermore, the proposed amendments seek to extend the requirement to declare interests to include senior public officers, specifically those at the level of Heads of Departments, Deputy Secretaries, and officers in Grades 19 to 21.
Because of previous resistance, Cabinet likely suggested that the register for these officers remain private and made accessible only to the Governor and Deputy Governor.
Additionally, the proposed revisions advocate for empowering the Registrar of Interests with the authority to refer matters concerning integrity directly to the Integrity Commission for advice.
Former Governor John Rankin noted in his last quarterly review that he previously called on the government to take proactive steps to bring good governance legislation into force — which had been passed for over two years — that could be used to hold officials to account.
He said these included a strengthened Integrity in Public Life Act, Whistleblower Act, and amended Register of Interests Act.
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About time, an open register of interests is one of the cornerstones of democracy
I don’t know what the hold up was??
Yall wan to hide thing from us but tell us to trust you when you want to fight UK
Yall quick to talk about independence too…
Clownsoup dawggg
Hmmm… if you can’t copy information from the register or if information on past members of the government like Fahie, isn’t available then what is this worth. Maybe it means something to a corrupt or incompetent politician like the A$$ C!0wn Brigade.
Some of the A$$ C!0wn Brigade pictured above. What a colossal waste of time in governance
“After two years of resistance to making substantial changes in transparency concerning the interests held by lawmakers and senior public officials, Cabinet has finally agreed to move forward with the Commission of Inquiry’s (COI) recommendation to overhaul the Register of Interests Act”.
Get this self-serving government out!!
Look at a Weak A$$ Government
To late mi boi you all aint got it,U.K COME NOW we need to be rescued from lunatics
how many of them have cases to catch?
The most none political and inexperienced heads of state we ever had. And with some who said they would behave and do as their predecessors did,steal and plunder.
Outrageous folk can speak of criminal intentif elected then the populace elect them to do just that. That is incredible.
Meanwhile, they think not nor care not about the majority of people who are working for slave wages, who canot adequately provide for their families,bt do not complain, not for the civil servants, active and retiredwho desperately are hanging by a thread from abject financial insufficiency.
Not one of them never think of or even mention the senior citizens with regards to an increase in social security benefits, as they to are victims of exorbitant increases in every commodity.
A political class and elite who do not care for or look out for the ordinary and challenged populace wil soon be rejected by them. ASk the NDP.
It is hope that the politically and intellectually capable would put a new party thatwill give voters another choice in achieving their needs.
A new party for the people in words and eventually in deeds are desperately needed in these times.