The Register of Interests Act 2022 once passed and assented to will not only require House of Assembly Members to declare their financial assets, but also other public servants in positions of authority within the public sector.
This was disclosed by Premier Dr. the Honourable Natalio Wheatley during Thursday’s sitting of the House of Assembly, following the second reading of the Bill.
According to the premier, not only will this new category of persons be required to disclose their assets, but also their immediate family members.
Premier Wheatley said there will be concerns from those who will now be required to declare their assets as their once private life will now be exposed to the public.
He said Members of the House in the committee stage of the Bill will seek to determine the criteria that will be used for these public servants to declare their assets.
Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Honourable Kye Rymer, listed the public servants who will be required to declare their assets once the Bill is passed and assented to.
Some of the positions include the Deputy Governor, Permanent Secretaries, Magistrates, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police and his deputy.
As part of the Government’s immediate goal to implement the Commission of Inquiry Report recommendations as a democratic front, they proposed to address each recommendation by a specified deadline.
Recommendations B2, B3, B4, and B5 from the Report all address some of the critical issues relating to the Register of Interests that were highlighted during the COI hearings.
In the proposal, the Government set a deadline date of June 30th to make the Register of Interests system public.
During the COI hearings in 2021, it was revealed that the majority of legislators had failed to meet the deadline period required for registering their respective interests.
Some legislators failed to register their interests for years at a time, while others omitted some of their interests due to what they described as difficulty in understanding what needed to be registered.