Just hours after Opposition Leader Dr. Peter Phillips labelled the current Jamaican government the most corrupt administration in independent Jamaica, Prime Minister Andrew Holness retaliated.
Phillips accuses govt of corruption
Phillips, president of the People’s National Party, PNP, addressing the party’s convention on Sunday, said, “The government has more scandals than Riverton City (dump) has scandal bag, and then we have the super scandal, the Petrojam scandal,” Phillips told supporters.
Holness says PNP more corrupt
But as he addressed a gospel concert in the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) Area Council Two, later that day, Holness said the PNP leader was being hypocritical and that the PNP’s list of corrupt activities dates back to 1989. “There is no point to be scored on corruption. You can’t curse me when you are also corrupt, that is called hypocrisy,” Holness said, adding that Phillips should not be trusted. “We already know that him bad-mind,” Holness said, adding that the Opposition Leader does not like to see people prosper.
Can’t manage
Phillips in his address outlined controversial issues affecting the country under the Andrew Holness led administration. He said these included, the acquisition of used police cars, massive bills and a debushing program. “Lack of accountability is bad, the corruption is bad, the false promises are bad. But what is even more threatening to our very existence is that they just can’t manage. They don’t know what they are doing and because they don’t know what they are doing, they are putting every single Jamaican at risk,” Phillips told supporters.
But Holness insisted that his JLP administration is the only government that has taken serious action to deal with corruption and put in place the necessary mechanisms to fight it.
He reminded supporters of the establishment of the Office of the Contractor General by former prime minister Edward Seaga and the recent passage the Integrity bill.
Making institutional changes
“We are the administration that is making the institutional changes to ensure that we tackle the issue of corruption,” Holness said, acknowledging that in every government, there will always be people who break the rules.
However, he said, the mark of a good government is when there is no cover-up of wrong-doing.
“When we face our challenges there is no one who can criticice this Government to say that we have covered up corruption… We are taking a strong stance against corruption. The Jamaica Labor Party stands firmly against corruption and we have put in place and have been putting in place the measures to address it,” Holness added.
