INTEGRITY IN PUBLIC LIFE ACT
The Attorney General (Sen. The Hon. Bridgid Annisette-George): Mr. Speaker, I am authorized by the Cabinet to make the following statement: Mr. Speaker, the Integrity in Public Life Act No. 83 of 2000 brought under its purview persons described as “persons in public life and persons exercising public functions”. Under the Act, persons in public life and persons exercising public functions are regulated through a Code of Conduct, while persons in public life are in addition required to the Integrity Commission by making annual declarations of their income and assets and completing an annual register of interests. The Act also created certain offences and empowered the Integrity Commission to investigate persons coming within its ambit either on its own initiative or on the basis of a complaint made by a member of the public. The persons who were categorized as persons in public life were specified in the Schedule of the Act which was subsequently widened by the Integrity in Public Life (Amdt.) Act No. 88 of 2000 to include among other offices judges and magistrates appointed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission and members of boards of all statutory bodies and state enterprises including those bodies in which the State has a controlling interest. The inclusion of judges and magistrates as persons in public life for the purposes of the continuous reporting obligation to the Integrity Commission has been a matter of much public debate and had engaged the attention of this honourable House since December 2004 in a statement made by the former Attorney General…
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