APNU’s lead parliamentarian Terrence Campbell has submitted a private member’s bill seeking to amend the Integrity Commission Act to require the publication of summary declarations filed by holders of specified public offices, arguing that the controversy surrounding President Irfaan Ali’s Long Creek farm has highlighted weaknesses in Guyana’s transparency laws.
In a video statement posted on Facebook last evening, Campbell said the country should not have to rely on political disputes before questions are raised about the wealth of public officials.
“This country cannot depend on fallouts between friends before allegations of unusual accumulation of wealth by public officials are raised in the public domain,” he said. “We need systems and laws that will allow anyone, be it somebody from civil society, be it a journalist, to have access to information that will then be investigated.”
The proposed legislation would amend Section 35 of the Integrity Commission Act by requiring the Commission, notwithstanding the confidentiality provisions of the Act, to publish in the Official Gazette summaries of declarations submitted by specified holders of high public office. According to the explanatory memorandum accompanying the bill, the amendment is intended to strengthen transparency, accountability and public confidence while maintaining the confidentiality of information that is not required to be disclosed.
Under the proposal, summary declarations would be published for the President, ministers, parliamentary secretaries, permanent secretaries, commissioners of key constitutional and regulatory agencies, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police, heads of government agencies and state corporations, regional executive officers, mayors and deputy mayors, among others. The summaries would include categories such as immovable property, vehicles, shares and securities, bank accounts, liabilities, business interests, gifts above a prescribed value and sources of income.
Campbell said he had first proposed the amendments in January but accelerated work on the legislation following the public controversy over President Ali’s farm along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
The issue arose after Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed released a video questioning the scale and financing of the President’s agricultural operations and alleging that the investment could not have been funded from the President’s declared income.
In the video Mohamed stood on a road near the property and provided his own cost estimates for the infrastructure, buildings, machinery, livestock and agricultural operations, arguing that a presidential salary of $3.7 million per month could never finance a 150-acre ranch investment amounting to what he said was more than $2.2 billion.
Responding late last week, Ali said the farm had been financed through a “huge loan” and that all relevant information had been declared to the Integrity Commission. He also maintained that the farm was public knowledge and rejected estimates of both its size and value presented by Mohamed. However, the President did not publicly release documents detailing the financing of the project, when the land was acquired or the total investment in the property.
He said: “My farm is not a discovery. It is public information… a farm that I have built and can account for every single; every single investment in that farm.”
Campbell said while he had no reason to doubt the President’s statement that the farm had been declared to the Integrity Commission, the controversy demonstrated the need for greater scrutiny of declarations.
“The President says that he did declare that he had a farm, and I have no reason to doubt the President because I myself knew he had a farm,” Campbell said. “But the issue for me, if the President declared he had a farm, did the Integrity Commission ever go take a look at this farm?”
He argued that the Integrity Commission had not demonstrated that it actively verified declarations or investigated omissions and described it as “a toothless poodle.”
Campbell said the publication of summary declarations would allow civil society organisations, journalists and members of the public to compare declared assets with publicly available information and, where necessary, pursue further investigations.
He expressed hope that the amendment would receive bipartisan support, while acknowledging that parliamentarians may wish to propose changes to the bill.
As the measure is a private member’s bill, Campbell noted that it would not be considered until a future sitting of the National Assembly. In the meantime, he called on President Ali and the leaders of all parliamentary parties to voluntarily agree to release their 2025 Integrity Commission declarations.
“I, Terence Campbell, stand ready to release my entire declaration come Monday morning once such an agreement can be forged,” he said.
The President’s farm has continued to attract scrutiny from opposition parties and civil society organisations. Former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson has questioned whether the development could have been financed solely through commercial loans, while former Environmental Protection Agency Executive Director Vincent Adams has argued that any significant expansion of the livestock operation should have required fresh environmental approvals. The Guyana Trades Union Congress, Transparency International Guyana, the Alliance For Change and the We Invest in Nationhood party have also called for greater disclosure or independent investigations into the financing and development of the property.
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