No need to sanction Hutchinson in fresh scandal, says Chang
Published:Tuesday | November 22, 2022 | 12:11 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) General Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang has said he does not believe that embattled State Minister J.C. Hutchinson should again be sanctioned for fresh allegations of conflict of interest and nepotism that were unearthed by the Integrity Commission in a recent report to Parliament.
Chang was responding to questions during an Editors’ Forum at the downtown Kingston offices of The Gleaner last week regarding recommendations by the Integrity Commission for Hutchinson to be punished by the prime minister as it cited him for alleged acts of nepotism and actions that constitute a conflict of interest.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness had stripped Hutchinson of his duties as minister without portfolio with responsibility for agriculture in July 2020 following a Gleaner report about conflict of interest over a land deal in Holland, St Elizabeth. Some 2,400 acres of state-owned lands located were being managed by a company of which Hutchinson’s partner, Lola Marshall-Williams, was a director and shareholder.
But Chang is of the view that the punishment of losing his Cabinet seat for the previous offence was a major disciplinary action by Holness.
“His conduct as a minister of Government was in question and he was moved from the Cabinet. I would consider that to be an adequate message to a very long-standing serving member of parliament,” Chang said.
He told Gleaner reporters that the reprimand by the Integrity Commission was a significant rebuke “and I don’t think that Mr Hutchinson has ignored it”.
“He was disciplined for the original action that was not in keeping with the position of the Government and I don’t think there is a need for further action at this point in time,” Chang argued, although this is a separate matter.
Last month, the Integrity Commission released a report detailing the actions of Hutchinson that led to adverse conclusions about the senior government lawmaker’s influence in his son Jason’s company benefiting from the award of state contracts.
Director of Investigations at the Integrity Commission Kevon Stephenson had recommended that the prime minister and Speaker of the House of Representatives Marisa Dalrymple Philibert “implement such sanctions which are both commensurate with the seriousness of his conduct and inspire public confidence in Government”.
Addressing the JLP’s 79th annual conference at the National Arena on Sunday, party leader Holness said that the JLP “must not be seen as a mechanism for the distribution or access to scarce state resources”.
He warned that “when we allow the party to be used as a route to state resources, this is when allegations of corruption are levelled against us and we lose the confidence and trust of the people”.
Holness said he told the top brass of the party at the JLP’s private session a little more than a week ago that the governing party must be good stewards of public resources.