Call to account

THE MUCH TOUTED INTEGRITY LAW for politicians is in its last stages of drafting, Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has said.He also said in an interview with the SUNDAY SUN in New York that the new law would also embrace civil servants and some officers of the private sector. Stuart said the public integrity measure, having public figures account for their assets, might be introduced “soon, very soon”.The David Thompson administration is also moving ahead with an anti-corruption bill designed to protect the public from people in both the public and private sectors who wish to illegally sell or buy influence.Stuart said that the public integrity bill “was intended to be far-reaching” as the Government seeks to raise the level of public accountability for civil servants, lawmakers and certain sections of the private sector.“I do not believe – and recent evidence has shown – that corruption is the exclusive and sacred preserve of people in the public sector,” Stuart said.“Citizens have as much to be protected from that kind of thing in the private sphere as in the public sphere,” he added.“But, of course, we have to be astute not to interfere with contract rights and all the other private rights that people enjoy. But we just have to hold the society to certain standards in the private sector.”The Attorney General said there were establishments in the private sector whose operations impact very heavily on public welfare.“Even though they are private in nature, their operations are really public in character and one therefore has to hold these operations to certain standards as well.”Questioned about provisions to deal with attempted bribery of a civil servant, parliamentarian or others in the public service, Stuart replied: “I don’t have the legislation in front of me but that (idea) sounds very familiar.“I don’t know how you could be discussing integrity in public life and corruption and not look at that issue,” he added.Stuart, who is chairman of a Cabinet committee on governance which deals with legislation in the pipeline, also disclosed that they have in draft a trans-national organised crime bill.