Our Republic’s Public Bodies and their officials act on our collective behalf, so it is fundamental that those operations are under the oversight of a series of legal requirements to ensure their proper functioning.  I have called that series of arrangements and legal requirements, The Integrity Framework.

Our country’s Integrity Framework comprises these basic elements –

• The Integrity Commission (IC), which is responsible for monitoring the integrity of Public Officials;
• The Freedom of Information Act (FoIA), which gives the right to obtain unpublished information;
• The Auditor General, the Independent body monitoring the financial reporting of Public Bodies;
• The Investments Division of the Ministry of Finance, monitoring the operations of State Enterprises;
• The two Parliamentary Accounts Enterprises Committees, providing Parliamentary oversight of Public Bodies
• The Judiciary – The courts exercise a supervisory jurisdiction over the rest of the society to ensure that illegal acts do not prevail.

Obviously, those bodies which are part of the Integrity Framework are performing important public functions, so it is ironic that those bodies are not always accountable in the same way that the others are.  For instance, the members of the Integrity Commission do not have to declare their assets, income & liabilities as do other Public Officials.  Also, as a result of a 2007 High Court ruling the Judiciary do not have to provide declarations to the Integrity Commission.

This sustained examination of our country’s Integrity Framework is directed towards an enhanced level of information on how our nation’s Public Bodies are functioning.

Previous Posts

1. Integrity threat from the Appeal Court (8/27/2013)
2. Integrity Threat: Part 2 & 3 (9/13/2013)
3. Integrity Threat – Part 4 (9/26/2013)
4. Integrity Commission Public Notice (10/16/2013)
5. The Integrity Account (11/15/2013)
6. Integrity Omission? (11/27/2013)
7. Secret Society (12/5/2013)
8. Guarding the Guards (3/12/2014)
9. Submission to Joint Select Committee Inquiry into the administration and operations of TSTT (5/5/2014)
10. TSTT Inquiry (5/15/2014)
11. Compliance of CL Financial Directors with the Integrity in Public Life Act – a correspondence (5/29/2014)
12. Everything but the Truth (6/12/2014)
13. What Lies Beneath (6/20/2014)
14. Money is the Problem (7/9/2014)
15. CL Financial – Bait & Switch (12/3/2014)
16. Integrity Strategy (12/11/2014)
17. Integrity Reflections (2/26/2015)
18. Integrity Reflections – the background (3/4/2015)
19. Integrity Inquiry (6/10/2015)
20. TSTT Matters – How the MASSY-TSTT Merger Affects Us (6/22/2017)

Letters to Press

• The challenges facing our public institutions (11/19/2013)
• Integrity Commission must rise to challenge (11/19/2013)

The Law

• Integrity in Public Life Act, 2000.
• Integrity in Public Life (Amendment) Act, 2000.

2013 Annual Report of the Commission

Judgments

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE H.C.A. 1735 of 2005: IC vs. AG

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL CIVIL APPEAL NO. 30 of 2008:  TSTT vs. IC and AG

Appeal Court transcript from final Hearing of Magdalena Samaroo v TSTT (2010)

Judiciary Press Releases

Court of Appeal Ruling in the Matter of the Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago and Magdalene Samaroo

News Sources

Guardian – http://www.guardian.co.tt/letters/2013-11-19/challenges-facing-our-public-institutions
Express – http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Integrity-Commission-must-rise-to-challenge-232588101.html