Warned!

The Mia Amor Mottley Administration is serious about stamping out corruption in this country and is setting up a special team to help uncover acts of corruption and bring the guilty to justice.

Word of this came yesterday in the House of Assembly from Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Dale Marshall who made it clear that the Barbados Labour Party’s campaign promise to hold those who have engaged in any wrongdoing accountable for their actions, was no idle threat. He made the comments while issuing a warning to the perpetrators that they would leave no stone unturned to get justice for Barbadians.

“I for so long as I am Attorney General of this country, intend to strain every sinew of mine to the point of breaking; I intend to engage every agency of the Crown either in Barbados or outside of Barbados; I intend to do everything that I can Sir to bring the perpetrators of that dishonest activity to heel,” he maintained.

The Attorney General added, “…Every single one of those individuals who we can identify, they’re going to have to give an explanation to the people of this country as to how they came by those ill-gotten gains and prove to the people of this country that they were come by honestly.”

Adding too that the law courts are going to be involved, Minister Marshall told members of the Lower House that he has already begun to put together a team of individuals, from outside of the public sector, who will be tasked with advising and helping that process along. He made the disclosure while indicating that Prime Minister Mottley has given permission to engage all the skills he needs from outside of the public service and even from outside of Barbados to help “ferret out the incidents of corruption” in this country that they know about, but for which they have no proof.

The Minister of Legal Affairs’ comments came as he said that once the Bill is passed there will be an Integrity Commission established, which will among other things be responsible for receiving and keeping records of all declarations of assets provided by persons in public life, including members of boards. He explained that it will also have investigative powers, this would include investigating alleged contraventions of the Act; alleged contraventions of the Code of Conduct; or the acquisition by a member of the House of Assembly or the Senate of a prohibited interest.

“[The Integrity Commission] will have investigative staff who will be charged with the responsibility of looking into issues as they arise relating to corruption in public life. Rather than sending you a sterile summons, which based on the Public Accounts Committee experience the people might decide they are not coming anywhere; in this instance, nobody has to wait for you to come anywhere, they would have the power to go to Licensing Authority, as we have, and see who owns what. They would have those powers, because you cannot truly talk about integrity in public life unless there is an effective investigative arm which is then buttressed by a course of action,” he maintained. (JRT)