By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter - juan@nasguard.com:
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham yesterday admitted that like many other members of Parliament, he has not been complying with the Public Disclosures Act for the past several years.
"The last one I did was the day before the election in 2007," said the prime minister in a candid interview with The Nassau Guardian in his office at the Churchill Building yesterday.
Ingraham was responding to questions raised after a Guardian investigation uncovered that published public disclosure among elected and publicly appointed officials has basically become a thing of the past.
"I saw your story and we will give some attention to that," Ingraham said when asked if he was aware of the issue. In fact, Ingraham admitted that, "the Public Disclosures Act is not being adhered to by members of Parliament."
The last disclosures published were done on November 3, 2004. However, that information was only current up to the end of 2000.
On Tuesday, the prime minister said that he has all of his financial statements up to end of last year in order and has only to turn them in.
"I brought all of mine up to date," Ingraham said. "I've prepared all the others for 2007 and 2008. I haven't filed them yet, but I'll file '07, '08 and '09 between now and the end of March and early April."
With an entrance tucked in a corner behind the Office of Government Publications and next to the Royal Bahamas Police Force Drug Enforcement Unit's Marine Division on East Bay Street, it's easy to see how somebody could have difficulty locating the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) if no one explained exactly where it is located.
The secreted location of the PDC might be one reason public officials have trouble turning in their disclosures.
For years, various parliamentarians have claimed that the disclosure laws are more to allow the public a glimpse into their private lives.
However, the law - drafted in 1976 - was created specifically to ensure that elected and publicly appointed officials do not enrich themselves off of the public purse.
As far as how the Ingraham administration will address its own elected and publicly appointed officials' delinquencies, Ingraham said that he was in no position to tell other public officials to disclose their financial information in light of his own transgressions.
"The first thing I must do is bring myself up to date before I have the moral authority to ask others to do so," Ingraham said. "I've done so up to 2007 and I haven't done so since. I don't seek to find any excuse for not having done so. I just haven't done it. But I'll do it."
The penalty for not disclosing the information or providing incorrect information is a $10,000 fine and/or two years in prison.
To be fair, even though the information is ultimately forwarded to Cabinet, the process for public disclosure is that all information is to be submitted to the PDC, then audited by its appointed board, according to sources within the PDC.
Why two administrations have passed and a third has almost reached the halfway mark with no new information having been published since 2004 is a question that has yet to be answered.
When contacted last week, the head of the PDC, Oswald Isaacs, said he wasn't prepared to sit for an interview because he had only recently been appointed to the post.
Isaacs referred The Guardian to the secretary of the commission, who did not return messages left for him.
What was gathered from multiple sources is that the hold up usually occurs in Cabinet. Getting anyone connected to Cabinet to confirm that proved fruitless. Cabinet meetings are considered top secret.
It is also understood that if even one person required to make public disclosure fails to do so, the entire process is held up.
Also, the verification process was said to take quite some time.
But how a government that produces a yearly budget for dozens of government departments outlining thousands of line items in minute detail, cannot compile the financial data of fewer than 100 people on a yearly basis is a question that might never be answered.
February 10, 2010
thenassauguardian
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.
