Integrity Commission Tracks Officials’ Finances to Root Out Corruption

At the heart of the fight against corruption, the Integrity Commission is quietly watching the money trail, tracking what public officials earn, what they buy, and whether the two line up. Chair Andrea McSweaney-McKoy says the process is simple in principle but powerful in practice: from the moment someone enters public life, they are required to declare their finances and keep doing so every year. Those filings, she explains, allow the Commission to spot red flags, identify unusual gains, and determine whether decisions in office are being influenced by personal gain. But for McSweaney-McKoy, the work goes beyond paperwork. She warns that corruption isn’t just an administrative issue, it’s a threat to the country’s culture.

 

Andrea McSweaney- McKoy, Chair, Integrity Commission

“The Integrity Commission is charged with ensuring that there is not corruption in public life. Persons in public life would include members of the House of Representatives, the upper and lower houses and it’s a very practical way of getting it done in which we take their financial declaration at the beginning, when they are first appointed to public life and then every year throughout that time. So, an effort is made to gauge what are they earning, what are they acquiring and so on and then make inferences and analyses to see whether there may be corruption. It’s very grave. We see it as something affecting our very culture and a goal that we’ve made for the organization is to create a culture of compliance where, one, members of public life actually comply with the law and file their declarations. And, secondly, knowing that there is some measure of accountability, that they make decisions that are actually in line with the laws, in terms of how they acquire property and how they handle the great trust that they have on them. So, it’s really grave and we can easily have a culture that let’s go of rules, that let’s go of procedures and systems. If everybody wants to do what they want to do, but that’s really anarchy. And so, we see our role as very significant and I’m really grateful for the commission that we’ve had because it’s been a journey to become familiar with the processes, catch up with backlogs, but we have a very dedicated team and we work very hard.”

 

Seven new members of the Integrity Commission, led by Chair Andrea McSweeney-McKoy, officially took their oath of office today, joining Senior Justice of the Peace Adrian “Danny” Madrid in a move aimed at strengthening oversight in public life.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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