GOVERNMENT is seeking to have all parliamentarians declare their annual assets and earnings by way of a motion before the National Assembly. 
The aim is to get Members of Parliament to comply with the Integrity Commission Act which requires them to declare their earnings annually.

The motion will also ask the House to have the President disclose to the Speaker annually the names of those Members of Parliament who are not in compliance.
According to notice paper No.55 which was released by the parliament office, the motion by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who is responsible for parliamentary affairs, is also seeking penalties for defaulters and will be tabled during the next sitting of the National Assembly scheduled for June 13 and 14.

Be it resolved: that this House recognises the lawful and legal obligation of Members of Parliament to submit annual declarations and call on all Members of this National Assembly to submit their declarations in accordance with the law.
“Be it also resolved: that this House declares that failure or refusal of Members of Parliament to submit declarations is a violation of the law and a gross indictment of those Members of Parliament and vicariously on the integrity of Parliament,” the motion reads.
It notes that Section 19 of the Act empowers the Integrity Commission and the President to publish the names of persons who are not in compliance with this Act in the Gazette and in a daily newspaper while Section 22 addresses the offences and penalties for failure to comply which include fines and imprisonment.

The motion is also asking the House to conduct an “annual voluntary monitoring exercise” of compliance by MPs and that it calls on the President to “disclose to the Speaker annually the names of those Members of Parliament in default.”
“Persistent defaulters should be sanctioned by this House according to established norms of ethics and brought before the Committee of Privileges,” the motion concludes.
The Prime Minister, in the motion, explained that the Integrity Commission Act was passed in the House in 1997 and made into law on September 24, 1997 as the Integrity Commission Act 1997, Chapter 19:12, Act No. 20 of 1997.

According to the Act, the penalty for failing to comply is “a fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than one year; and where the offence involves the non-disclosure by the declarant of property which should have been disclosed in the declaration, the magistrate convicting the person shall order the person to make full disclosure of the property within a given time; and on failure to comply with the order of the magistrate within the given time, the said offence shall be deemed to be a continuing offence and the person shall be liable to a further fine of $10,000 for each day on which the offence continues.
Government had filed a similar motion in 2010 but it was later withdrawn in light of a court matter brought by then Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin, challenging the lack of consultation with him on the appointment of the chairman and members of the Commission.