The National Integrity Action (NIA), Jamaica’s local corruption watchdog group has called on the Integrity Commission to convene a press briefing to clarify a report referring allegations against Prime Minister Andrew Holness to the Director of Corruption Prosecution.
The NIA was responding to a statement issued by the Integrity Commission’s on Friday, in which it sought to explain how it addressed the tabling of the report and the publishing of the ruling that no charge would be brought against the Prime Minister.
The watchdog group says the Commission’s statement clarified certain issues, including the negative effect of the “gag clause” which prohibited the simultaneous release of the director of corruption prosecution’s ruling and the report concerning the prime minister.
According to the NIA, the Commission needs to answer why the director of investigation’s report, dated October 22, 2022, was tabled months later on February 14, 2023 as well as why its commissioners took more than a month to review the ruling by the director of corruption prosecution.
Speaking with Radio Jamaica, one of the directors at the NIA Danielle Archer, said how the report was handled has given cause for the public to question the integrity of the Commission.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the controversy the ruling Jamaica Labour Party says it is in solidarity with the party leader.
The party insists that the Integrity Commission blundered in tabling the director of investigation’s report without immediately publishing the ruling of the director of corruption prosecution – a move that has tarnished the prime minister’s reputation.
The prime minister, who was greeted at the JLP headquarters late Friday on his return from the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) meeting in The Bahamas, told the gathering that the saga is merely a distraction but his experience as a “seasoned politician” allowed him to carry on his duties despite the allegations that had been swirling.
The prime minister said as the government continues to achieve its targets, there are those who “have become desperate…corrupted in their minds and in their thoughts, and in their deeds”.
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