#Providenciales, May 31, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – The Integrity Commission wishes
to inform the public and, in particular, to remind the Specified Persons in Public Life
(Declarants), as set out below, that they must file their Declarations of
Income, Assets and Liabilities, as required by Section 39 of the TCI Integrity
Commission Ordinance, on or before June
30, 2019.
These Specified Persons in Public
Life include the following:
All
Specified Persons in Public Life who made their last filing on or before June
30, 2017.
All
persons who are appointed to Statutory Boards, effective April 1, 2019, or
thereafter.
All
Specified Persons in Public Life who are appointed, within the TCIG Government,
effective April 1, 2019, or thereafter.
All
persons who are no longer sitting members of Statutory Boards, as at March 31,
2019.
All
persons who have resigned their posts, or whose contracts have not been
renewed, within the TCIG Government, are required to file within 90 days of the
end of their tenure.
All
other persons who are considered Specified Persons in Public Life, but who would
not have been aware of their obligation to file, under section 39 the Integrity
Commission Ordinance.
Declaration Forms are available
at the Commission’s Offices in Grand Turk and Providenciales, or are downloadable
from the Commission’s website at: www.integritycommission.tc.
All Declarants are required to deliver their completed Declaration forms, along with the relevant supporting documents, in person, at an office of the Commission.
All Declarations are confidential documents. Please DO NOT submit your completed Declaration form through a third party, OR via electronic or surface mail.
Please be reminded that a failure, without reasonable cause, to file a Declaration is a criminal offence, punishable with imprisonment for 1 year, or a fine of $15,000, or both. In addition, the Commission is, among other things, obligated to publish the fact of such failure in the Gazette.
The Commission may publish, in the
Gazette, the names of those persons who have failed to file by June 30, 2019. In any event that
the Commission is unable to contact any Specified Persons in Public Life by
direct email, or by telephone, the Commission will not be held responsible for
a failure on the part of that person to file.
Persons who have filed a
Declaration during calendar year 2018, will NOT be required to file in 2019.
Additionally,
the Integrity Commission will be conducting ORIENTATION SESSIONS for all
new first-time TCI Government Board Members, and new Government Employees, who
are designated as Specified Persons in Public Life,
as is specified in Schedule 1 to the Integrity Commission
Ordinance.
The
Integrity Commission will conduct four (4) Orientation Sessions. They will be
convened at the places, dates and times that are indicated as follows:
Grand Turk – Integrity Commission Office, Franklyn
Missick’s Building, Church
Folly; Tuesday June 4, 2019 and
Wednesday June 5, 2019, from 9am – 11am.
Providenciales – Integrity Commission Office, C206 Cabot House,
Leeward Highway (within the IGA Compound, above the Flamingo Pharmacy); Thursday June 6, 2019 and Friday June 7,
2019, from 9am – 11am.
All new
first-time TCI Government Board Members, and new Government Employees, who are
designated as Specified Persons in Public Life, are invited to attend any ONE of these sessions.
Specifically, these invitations are being directed towards the following listed
persons, who are Specified Persons in Public Life, as first-time TCI Government Board Members, and new Government
Employees:
#
Name
Board
1
Sinanan, Hemant
Accountant General
2
Missick, Synkero
Chairman, Civil Aviation Authority Board
3
Saunders, Thomas
Chairman, Parole Board
4
Handfield, Derry
Chairman, Physical Planning Board
5
Francis, Urban Jason
Chairman, Ports Authority
6
Gardiner, Dominique
Crown Counsel, Attorney General Chambers
7
Been, Godfrey
Director, Airports Authority Board
8
Garland, George
Director, Civil Aviation Authority Board
9
Lightbourne, Curtis
Director, Civil Aviation Authority Board
10
Farr, Sheila
Director, Crown Land
11
Harvey, Royalton
Director, National Wealth Fund
12
Mills, Diandra
Director, National Wealth Fund
13
Walters, Kenrick
Director, National Wealth Fund
14
Bassett, Joanne
Member, Education Advisory Scholarship Committee
15
Hunt, Bernadette
Member, Immigration Appeal Tribunal
16
Parker, Colleen
Member, Immigration Appeal Tribunal
17
Kemp, Mary
Member, Parole Board
18
Swann, Larry
Member, Parole Board
19
Duncan, Thomas
Member, Physical Planning Appeal Tribunal
20
Williams, Willard
Member, Physical Planning Appeal Tribunal
21
Harvey, Kevin
Member, Physical Planning Board
22
Ewing, E. Larvado
Member, Ports Authority
23
Bain, Karl
Member, Ports Authority
24
Capron, Albert
Member, Prison Visiting Committee
25
Harvey, Racquel
Member, Prison Visiting Committee
26
Smith, Melanie
Member, Prison Visiting Committee
27
Adams, Jasmine
Member, Prisoner’s Categorisation Board
28
Lewis, Myrlchina
Member, Procurement Board
29
Ewing, Maisha
Member, Tourist Board
30
Hilton, John
Member, Tourist Board
31
Dickenson, Austin
Member, Zone 1 Work Permit Board
32
Cunningham, Mary
Member, Zone 2 Work Permit Board
33
Gardiner, Stellon
Member, Zone 2 Work Permit Board
34
Lightbourne, Delroy
Member, Zone 2 Work Permit Board
35
Grant, Tamika
Public Prosecutor, Office of the Director of Public
Prosecutions
36
Williams, Ali
Secretary, Community College Board of Governors
37
Gray, Diandra
Secretary, Education Advisory Committee
38
Gibbs, Lillian
Secretary, Immigration Appeal Tribunal
39
Glasgow, Leonardo
Secretary, Physical Planning Appeal Tribunal
40
Garland, Charlie
Vice Chairman, Physical Planning Board
The
Commission kindly requests that persons whose names appear on the aforementioned
list should confirm the date and time of
their intended attendance at one of the Orientation Sessions.
Confirmation may be done via
email to complianceofficer@integritycommission.tc, or via telephone at 1-649-338-3333
or 1-649-946-1941.
This Public Notice, to the named
Declarants, of the convening by the Commission of its Orientation Sessions, is
a ‘last ditch effort’ to contact the Declarants. Other efforts by the
Commission’s Compliance Department to make contact have failed.
Should you have any queries,
please feel free to telephone the Commission’s Senior Compliance Office in the Commission’s Grand Turk Office
at 1-649-338-3336, or to visit the Commission’s Grand Turk Office, or its
Providenciales Office, at your convenience, between the hours of 8.30am and
4.30pm, on Mondays to Thursdays, or between the hours of 8.30am and 4.00pm, on
Fridays.
On Tuesday, 23rd April 2024, officers from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force charged a 31-year-old male.
TYLER SCOTT WENRICH of Virginia, USA, is charged with POSSESSION OF AMMUNITION.
Mr Wenrich appeared before a Grand Turk Magistrate yesterday (April 24th) and was remanded into custody at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation pending a June 07th Sufficiency Hearing.
Based on reports, Mr. Wenrich travelled to Grand Turk on a cruise ship.
While going through a security checkpoint, it was discovered Mr Wenrich allegedly had ammunition in his possession.
Officers of the Grand Turk Police Station were called, and Mr Wenrich was arrested and subsequently charged.
#TurksandCaicos, April 25, 2024 – He was busted at the Howard Hamilton Providenciales International Airport on Friday, April 16, 2024.
He allegedly had in his luggage four (4) rounds of 6.5mm ammunition on his departure to his homeland in Oklahoma in the United States of America (USA).
Ryan Watson and his wife were arrested and placed into police lock up. Both were later granted police bail, and upon return to police station the Monday after the couple’s arrest, the husband alone was charged by detective Police Constable Kimberlee Markland for unlawful possession of the four rounds of ammunition.
Watson was escorted to court on Tuesday, April 23rd, placed before the learned Chief Magistrate Mr. Jolyon Hatmin and remanded to His Majesty’s Prison until his sufficiency hearing on June 7, this (2024) year.
His counsel, Mr. Oliver Smith KC and his junior assistant Mrs. Kimone Tennant immediately sought bail for him in the Supreme Court which was heard the following day (Wednesday April 24) before her Ladyship Ms. Tanya Lobban-Jackson and was granted bail, without hassle in the amount or $15,000.00 cash or surety.
The Crown, in the person of senior public prosecutor Ms. Tassja Mitchell did not oppose bail.
Magnetic Media can report that once again on the afternoon of the Tuesday April 24th, after the accused RYAN TYLER WATSON, 41 was remanded by the Magistrate’s court, the U.S. Embassy issued an warning to it’s citizens and travelers to carefully check their bags when traveling to Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) as TCI authorities are strictly enforcing firearm and ammunition laws and if found you could go to prison for 12 years.
A real question of great concern and public importance is: should the TCI courts sentence tourists to the full mandatory minimum of 12 years imprisonment for simple possession firearm and/or ammunition.
The succinct answer is: Yes!
The Court of Appeal, just last month said in its written judgment that “ALL PERSONS,” including tourist/visitors must go to prison if found guilty or pleas guilty to firearm and ammunition offences.
However, there remains the concern about how much time in prison a judge should give a visitor regardless of the existence of exceptional circumstances.
Should the judge imprison a visitor to the territory, who may have been wrongly informed, for example, the full mandatory minimum term or must a reduced prison term be imposed.
If TCI judges start to give less than the mandatory minimum to tourists/visitors, it is being strong and widely advocated by senior defense attorneys that the same must apply to local or residents of these Islands, who may also present exceptional circumstances.
Arguments about the equity in delivery of justice is what drove the question to the Court of Appeal late in 2023. The decision came this past February.
‘We cannot find ourselves sentencing tourists regardless of exceptional circumstances to lesser sentences, and when those same exceptional circumstances are found in local cases, it’s being ignored by our judges.’
Human Rights Attorney, Sheena Mair has on more than one occasion argued this point; including in firearm and ammunition bail applications. She would put the very same judges and prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution on the spot by reminding the judges and the prosecutors that precedent has been set.
‘You’ve just granted bail to a tourist for firearm and ammunition but now here’s a local person, same charge but because he’s a local he can’t get bail? He has to be remanded pending a trial that could take years before it’s heard?’
Mair has valiantly outlined the wrong in this and clearly stated this practice is “not fair” and it’s “not proper administration of justice in the Turks and Caicos Islands.”
Ms. Mair further complained that tourists would plea guilty to possession of firearm and ammunition and be released on bail pending sentencing but as for a local, he or she has to wait on remand at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation pending sentencing.
The attorney criticizes the optics of such decisions and is on record reminding the Judge that the Court of Appeal has already set out that the law applies to everyone; visitors and locals alike.
A police statement issued Wednesday April 24 informs: “Today (April 24th), Mr. Watson appeared in the Supreme Court and, following a bail application, was granted $15,000 bail with the following conditions:
1) Not travel out of TCI without the court’s permission.
2) Surrender his passport and all other travel documents to the court
3) Report to Grace Bay Police Station on Tuesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 8 am-4 pm,
4) Reside at the given address in Providenciales; any address change will be provided before the court.”
The American from Oklahoma whose story is trending in the US and has been carried by leading news networks was joined by a host of loved ones at the Courthouse.
”At this moment I can feel the enormity of responsibility bestowed on me and the weight of accountability and expectations of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF) as well as members of the wider community.”
That was the acknowledgment from Edvin Martin, new Commissioner of Police as he was sworn into his role as head of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF) on Monday, April 22.
“I also feel an unprecedented opportunity and a distinguished privilege to serve by leading the Police Force into an era of modern policing,” he maintained.
A well-trained force that is averse to corruption and maintains the trust of the people is what Martin promised in the address that spoke to the Police, the residents and the criminals.
Not only does the Commissioner say he understands the gravity of his role and the lofty expectations to reverse high crime which he described as a ‘tremendous mandate’, he maintains he has a good grasp of the issues plaguing the country.
To the residents, Martin called on them and all stakeholders to form an anti-crime coalition with an all-hands-on-deck approach.
“There should be no bystanders in addressing the carnage in our communities,” he said.
Even as Martin listed the threats of immigration, terrorism, cybercrime, transnational organized criminal activity, and the associated gang violence, illegal firearms and drug trading, he assured:
”I urge you listening to me today, do not despair, for while these threats may be challenging, they are not insurmountable.”
The process for tackling them will need a tightened-up RTCIPF, according to the commissioner, one that is focused, well trained and adequately resourced.
For Martin this means the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF) must retool, restructure and reengineer its responses.
In this vein the top cop spoke directly to officers during his address, maintaining that the public deserves an accountable Police Force.
“As a service organization there will be allegations that cause the public to question our integrity; we must seek out and purge the organization of any semblance of bias, corruption and malfeasance,” he said.
Martin maintained the top brass now has a mandate to work to ensure fairness in work and promotions.
“Anything less than this will be an injustice— we must do everything possible to inspire confidence in our force and improve our legitimacy as gatekeepers of law and order,” said the new Commissioner.
As part of the crime fighting plan several immediate actions are to be taken:
The immediate and aggressive addressing of the spate violent crimes
Collaborating with stakeholders to address safety challenges in the tourism industry
Redefining the Police Force image to become the pride of the TCI
Greater technological innovation
Restructure the force to better align with contemporaries
Frequent Town Hall meetings
Increased safety at police stations.
Martin had words for the mayhem causers and their ‘glaring disregard for human life and safety’ too.
”Under my watch I can assure you that the RTCIPF will not sit idly by and observe this unrelenting rampage and havoc. Today I call on you to put down your weapons of destruction and change your criminal ways,” he said.
Martin, who recently retired as Grenadian PC is credited with being lead of his home force for five years, serving a total 37 years before bowing out and moving on to head the CARICOM Crime Gun Intelligence Unit.
Only months into that CARICOM job, Edvin Martin was approved and announced as police commissioner designate for the Turks and Caicos Islands, succeeding Trevor Botting.
“My first order of business ladies and gentlemen, this morning, is to give a special thanks to God, as He directs my path in every single thing that I do. I am grateful for His blessings and His guidance,” started Mr Martin when delivering his inaugural remarks at the outdoor ceremony.
The acknowledgment of God was a distinctive moment that many are hoping will auger well for the mission of newly installed policing leader for the TCI. Soon after his bold remarks, Martin, with his wife looking on from the audience took the oath of office and oath of allegiance in a live streamed event.
Also giving remarks at the swearing-in ceremony staged at the Gustarvus Lightbourne Sports Complex were Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam, TCI Governor and Washington Misick, TCI Premier.