THE Integrity Commission does not even have the funds to pay process servers to serve court documents to public officials who have breached the Integrity in Public Life Act by not filing their annual declarations of income and assets, lamented the Integrity Commission annual report 2022.

The 2022 report was laid in the House of Representatives last April. Under the act, the commission questions inconsistencies between an official's earnings and assets as being possible indicators of corruption.

In the report the commission urged an expansion of its remit to include all judges/magistrates, teachers, police officers, diplomats and public servants.

However, it also said it has had to restrict its work even under its existing scope of duties, owing to insufficient funding to hire enough staff to properly do its job.

In his chairman's report, Prof Rajendra Ramlogan quoted a Mexican president saying corruption was linked to crime.

The chairman said, "Undoubtedly, although the nation is growing increasingly despondent about the state of crime with its spiralling murder rate, we cannot lose sight of the crime of corruption, which can eviscerate our economy and ultimately our social well-being.

"To participate in the simplest public service offerings, bribes have become commonplace.

"As a nation, we must ensure that there is integrity in public life. The lack of integrity in governance can only serve to amputate our very souls."

Ramlogan cited a 2021 US State Department Report which said TT had anti-corruption laws but these were not enforced effectively, allowing some officials to engage in corrupt practices with impunity. Alleging corruption at many levels of governance, the report said, "Opaque public procurement practises were a concern."

Citing the UN's estimate of five per cent of a country's GDP being lost to corruption, the report said TT's earnings of US$500 billion from 1962-2019 suggested US$25 billion lost to graft.

The report said the commission had met a "critical situation" regarding the non-filing of declarations by public officials.

"Due to institutional constraints, the 15th commission took a decision to limit its enforcement actions to six years."

Consequently, it was focussing on 1,066 people in public life who had not filed 2,751 outstanding declarations for 2014-2019.

By late 2022, the commission had sought court action against 2,618 officials for outstanding declarations. Some 1,323 court orders were obtained, of which 478 were served, resulting in 457 declarations being filed in compliance. By 2022 year-end, some 800 court orders in all were served.

The commission sent 37 files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), although the report also noted "a significant history of difficulties" to develop a co-operation mechanism with the Office of DPP.

The report said declarations should be examined within six months of submission, in contrast to past periods of up to 17 years.

By 2022 year-end, 1,451 declarations remained to be examined (presumably filed in 20