SUSPENSE OVER IC REPORTS
Published:Thursday | June 29, 2023 | 1:22 AM
ALL EYES will be on the Senate tomorrow as its president, Tom Tavares Finson, confirmed to The Gleaner yesterday that six reports of investigation sent to the Houses of Parliament on June 20 by the Integrity Commission will be tabled in the Upper House on Friday.
The commission tweeted yesterday that it had sent six reports of investigation to the Houses of Parliament for tabling on June 20.
Some earthshaking issues have been before Jamaica’s single anti-corruption body from 2021 when the Integrity Commission revealed in its annual report that two parliamentarians and six public officials had been referred for prosecution for allegedly providing false information to the Integrity Commission in their statutory declarations.
It was further reported in the 2021 annual report that two parliamentarians and six public officials were being investigated for illicit enrichment.
Clerk to the Houses of Parliament, Valrie Curtis, confirmed to The Gleaner yesterday that the reports had been received by Parliament.
However, the clerk did not comment on why the reports were not tabled on June 27, one week after they were delivered at Gordon House.
Five other documents relating to government issues were tabled on Tuesday.
With the Section 53(3) gag clause silencing the Integrity Commission (IC) from revealing any investigation that it is pursuing before its tabling in Parliament, it cannot be confirmed at this time if the reports relate to the parliamentarians and public officials that are under probe for lying to the commission and illicit enrichment.
However, one of the six reports now before the Senate is likely to be the report of investigation concerning allegations of conflict of interest, corruption, and irregularities in relation to the acquisition of shares in First Rock Capital Holdings Limited by Airports Authority of Jamaica and Norman Manley International Airports Limited.
The name of the investigation report was revealed by Tavares Finson on June 16 while outlining to members of the Senate that the commission had in fact requested the return of the report.
Another lingering issue that is yet to be resolved is the publication by the commission of the 2021 statutory declaration of Prime Minister Andrew Holness. It is a requirement by law that the commission publish the income, assets, and liabilities of the prime minister and leader of the opposition.
However, the commission has indicated that it was unable to certify the statutory declaration of the head of government.
Holness told The Gleaner in May during a virtual press conference that he was unaware of what was preventing the commission from certifying his assets, income, and liabilities.
The commission gazetted the statutory declaration of the opposition leader in October 2022.
Regarding the non-tabling of the reports by the Lower House on June 27, Danielle Archer, principal director of National Integrity Action (NIA), said that good governance required that reports from the IC to Parliament be tabled once they have been received by the Speaker.
“This is the practice unless the Speaker indicates some compelling reason for delay. In the absence of a compelling reason, it is unacceptable that the six reports received on June 20 were not tabled at the June 27 House meeting,” Archer said.
Calls to the cell phone of Speaker of the House Marisa Dalrymple Philibert went unanswered.
And Archer signalled that the seeming reluctance to table reports from the IC is of even “greater concern given the acrimony displayed by members of parliament towards the Integrity Commission”.
NIA said it anticipates that the reports will be tabled during the sitting of the Senate tomorrow.
Quoting from Section 36(3), Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Peter Bunting, said that “the commission may at any time submit a report related to any particular matter, which in the opinion of the commission, requires the special attention of the Parliament”.
Bunting argued that implicit in that provision is that the report would be tabled promptly.
“The report is not made to the Government. It is not made to the Speaker or the president of the Senate. It is made to the Parliament, which means it is the collective body, and every member of parliament should receive their copy as soon as is practical,” he said.
Bunting said that Parliament also delayed the tabling of the addendum of the special report into allegations of impropriety, irregularity, and corruption in the issuance of firearm permits to persons of questionable character.
The report was sent to Parliament on May 30 but was tabled two sittings later on June 7. It was during that sitting that St Mary Western MP, Robert Montague, completed his six-page statement in record time to speak from a prepared text 100 minutes after reviewing the tabled report.
Bunting said that he is expecting Tavares Finson to table the reports tomorrow.
IC highlights how it sends reports to Parliament for tabling
(1) The Integrity Commission Act requires the Integrity Commission to submit to “Parliament”, for tabling, certain reports, inclusive of its Reports of Investigation.
(2) The Commission’s protocol for submitting its reports to Parliament, therefore, recognises (a) the fact that the Parliament is composed of two Houses - the House of Representatives and the Senate and, (b) the fact that the Parliament has three (3) primary functionaries - the Hon. Speaker of the House, the Hon President of the Senate and the Clerk to the Houses.
(3) Three (3) copies of each report, in every case, are, therefore, packaged in separate envelopes that are addressed, by name and by title, and transmitted to each of the three (3) functionaries. Additionally, a cover letter, which is jointly addressed to the Speaker and the President, and copied to the Clerk, is included in each of the three (3) envelope packages.
(4) Typically, when an Investigation Report gives rise to a Ruling by the Commission’s Director of Corruption Prosecution, a separate letter, which advises an indication of the ruling, is also sent to each of the three (3) functionaries. Again, this is done in separate envelope packages that are addressed to each of the functionaries, by name and by title. In every such case, a FORMAL NOTICE to the effect that the Indicative Ruling must be tabled only after the associated Investigation Report is tabled, is included in both envelope packages.
(5) A thumb drive, with an electronic copy of the items in #3 and #4, is also sent to the clerk in each case.
(6) In every case, a representative of the Integrity Commission will deliver the above-referenced packages, by hand, to an authorised officer of the Parliament at its offices, at Duke Street, in Kingston.