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Dear Editor
The Working People Alliance is extremely concerned about recent developments in the banking sector. The party has received several complaints from disgruntled clients of some banks whose sworn affidavits from Justices of the Peace, Commissioners of Oaths to Affidavits and from Notary Public have been refused by those institutions.
The WPA is even more alarmed at complaints that self- employed persons are instructed to present Statements of Income that are prepared, stamped and signed only by certified accountants and accounting firms. The fees for such work are pegged at approximately 80, 000 dollars. Is this development a collaboration between the banking institutions and agents within the Accounting fraternity? It should be noted that these high fees have serious negative implications for the poor.
Since WPA has been reliably informed that these measures are of recent vintage and that consumers have not been formally notified of the changes, we feel the banking institutions should clear the air. In the meantime, we wish to point out that the changes in question run contrary to the Statutory Declaration Act Chapter 5:09, Article 3 (1) which reads as follows:
Subject to the provisions hereinafter contained wherever confirmation of any written instrument or allegation, or the proof of any debt or of the execution of any deed or other matter is required, any judge, magistrate, justice of the peace, notary public, commissioner authorized to administer oaths to affidavits, or other officer now by law authorized to administer an oath, may take the declaration of any person voluntarily making it before him, in the form of the Schedule.
Regards
Working People’s Alliance
