NIA continues call for mandatory disclosure of assets by political leaders

National Integrity Action (NIA) is continuing its call for mandatory public disclosure of the financial status of the prime minister, opposition leader, finance minister and the opposition spokesperson on finance.

   

Professor Trevor Munroe, NIA Executive Director, is recommending that legislation be quickly passed to facilitate this process.

   

According to Professor Munroe, privacy concerns could be dealt with in the legislation.

 

"Procedures can be adopted to protect information that need not be in the public domain, such as the actual location of properties and account numbers in which banks... No one wants to be unreasonable," he said.  

 

"But, we live in an age of transparency and we need to broaden the transparency so that less and less of our citizens will lose confidence in the political system. So I don't think the public should allow it to come to a screeching halt; we need to use this as a means of asking that more be done and that it be done by statute rather than as a option," Professor Munroe insisted. 

 

The National Integrity Action has a specific timeline in which it wants the process to begin. Professor Munroe is expecting results by December.