Transport Authority clampdown

THE Integrity Commission has referred 45 employees of the Transport Authority to its director of corruption prosecution after they failed to file statutory declarations for 2019 and 2020.

The employees, including senior staff, have all been found in breach of the Integrity Commission Act, which compels public employees who receive emoluments of $3.5 million or more to submit declarations to the director of information and complaints, outlining their assets, liabilities and income.

The Integrity Commission issued warning signals in late 2021 that it had started the process of preparing files for public officials with outstanding statutory declarations to be referred for prosecution.

In a special report to Parliament on the status of statutory declarations, the commission said going forward it would also take similar action against those who have statutory declarations that are to be filed as at December 31, 2021.

The commission said although there had been a gradual increase in the compliance rate, from 58 per cent to 66.89 per cent, as of March 2021 there were 13,393 statutory declarations from public officials outstanding for 2020.

The vast majority of those alleged to have committed the infraction, according to the report tabled by the commission in Parliament last week, are route inspectors.

The report noted that the procedure to identify people who have not filed statutory declarations as required, begins with its director of information and complaints writing the heads of all ministries, departments and agencies to request a list of employees who are to file annually.

When that list is received it is matched against the list of those who actually filed their statutory declarations and those who did not file are then submitted for possible prosecution.

According to the commission, the employees have provided no lawful explanation for failure to file their statutory declarations. The commission says public entities should ensure that public officials provide annually proof that they are compliant with the Integrity Commission Act, in respect of filing statutory declarations.

A Parliamentary joint select committee is currently undertaking a review of the Integrity Commission Act to make amendments.