The In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion is re­it­er­at­ing its stance that is main­tain­ing “a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach” in 2021 in re­spect of per­sons in pub­lic life who have failed to file their out­stand­ing de­c­la­ra­tions of in­come, as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties and state­ments of reg­is­tra­ble in­ter­ests.

An of­fi­cial state­ment re­leased by the Com­mis­sion to­day re­ports that as of May 26, 2022, “the Com­mis­sion has made ex parte ap­pli­ca­tions to the High Court for or­ders con­cerni9ng 1,350 out­stand­ing de­c­la­ra­tions of In­come, As­sets and Li­a­bil­i­ties and State­ment of Reg­is­tra­ble for the pe­ri­od of 2014-2020.”

The state­ment says:

“These or­ders di­rect per­sons to com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of the Act and file their out­stand­ing de­c­la­ra­tions of in­come, as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties and state­ments of reg­is­tra­ble in­ter­ests and in­clude an as­sessed cost which may vary from ONE THOU­SAND FIVE HUN­DRED DOL­LARS ($1,500) to FIVE THOU­SAND DOL­LARS ($5,000), de­pend­ing on the num­ber of de­c­la­ra­tions of in­come, as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties and state­ments of reg­is­tra­ble in­ter­ests out­stand­ing.”

“The Com­mis­sion is con­tin­u­ous­ly prepar­ing ex parte ap­pli­ca­tions re­quest­ing the High Court to or­der per­sons in pub­lic life who have failed to file their de­c­la­ra­tions of in­come, as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties and state­ments of reg­is­tra­ble in­ter­ests,” the state­ment ad­vised.

It added: “The Com­mis­sion re­mains res­olute, fo­cussed and com­mit­ted to car­ry­ing out its func­tions thor­ough­ly, ef­fi­cient­ly, fair­ly and with­in the time frame as stip­u­lat­ed by the Act… The Com­mis­sion looks for­ward to the full co­op­er­a­tion of Per­sons in Pub­lic Life as we con­tin­ue to im­ple­ment mea­sures to en­sure ef­fec­tive en­force­ment of the pro­vi­sions of the Act.”

The In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion al­so is­sued a warn­ing to Per­sons in Pub­lic Life who fail to rec­ti­fy mat­ters, that they could face crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion.

“Per­sons in Pub­lic Life are ad­vised that should if they fail to file their out­stand­ing de­c­la­ra­tions of in­come, as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties, and state­ments of reg­is­tra­ble in­ter­ests and their names have been pub­lished in the news­pa­pers as well as in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette, they would be sub­ject to ap­pli­ca­tions for Ex parte Or­ders from the High Court of Trinidad and To­ba­go di­rect­ing them to do so, in­clud­ing the re­quire­ment to pay costs,” it stat­ed.

The Com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed: “To avoid this course of ac­tion, Per­sons in Pub­lic life are re­quired to com­ply with sec­tions 11 and 14 of the Act and file all out­stand­ing de­c­la­ra­tions of in­come, as­sets and li­a­bil­i­ties and state­ments of reg­is­tra­ble in­ter­ests with­out fur­ther de­lay.”

“Fail­ure to com­ply with the High Court Or­der would re­sult in the Com­mis­sion ini­ti­at­ing crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion un­der sec­tion 21 (1) of the Act against non-com­pli­ant per­sons in pub­lic life,” the Com­mis­sion de­clared.

The Com­mis­sion is en­cour­ag­ing per­sons who re­quire as­sis­tance with re­spect to their fil­ing re­quire­ments to call the Com­mis­sion’s Of­fice at 623-8305, 624-4736, 625-2393, 625-2392 Ex­ten­sions 340 or 335 to make an ap­point­ment to com­plete their de­c­la­ra­tion forms. They al­so can vis­it the Com­mis­sion’s so­cial me­dia plat­form for up­dates.