CAMPBELL STUNNED
Former lawmaker requests urgent review as IC recommends charges
Published:Saturday | July 1, 2023 | 1:08 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
Attorneys representing Leslie Campbell have said that the former government senator is perplexed by an Integrity Commission (IC) decision that he should face charges for alleged breaches of the IC Act and the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act.
In a report to Parliament, the anti-corruption body's director of corruption prosecution, Keisha Prince-Kameka, recommended that Campbell, a former state minister for foreign affairs and foreign trade, should be charged.
Campbell, who tendered his resignation as government senator recently and lost his position as state minister, has requested an urgent review of the decision.
Kevon Stephenson, director of investigations at the IC, issued an investigation report to Parliament last week detailing concerns that Campbell failed to provide information requested by the commission regarding his statutory declarations.
The report was tabled during a sitting of the Senate on Friday.
In his probe, Stephenson said the that commission made 39 requests in writing between 2016 and 2020 for Campbell to provide information to the anti-corruption body, but the former lawmaker only partially complied with the requests.
The IC said that Campbell provided a total of five responses over the period.
The commission said it gave a deadline of December 24, 2021 for Campbell to provide the information requested, but to date, the former Jamaica Labour Party MP has not complied.
The IC said that the outstanding information includes the surrender value for two life insurance policies and the account balance linked to a bank loan.
But yesterday, Campbell's attorneys insisted that he had provided adequate responses to the agency.
“Mr Campbell reported that the Integrity Commission continues to request the surrender value for an insurance policy, Guardian Life Care Plus, which has no surrender value,” the attorneys said.
Campbell's attorneys said their client awaits the Integrity Commission's director of information and complaints to contact him for dialogue as stated in the IC's report.
REPORTED TO LEADERSHIP
The anti-corruption agency had reported Campbell to the leadership of Parliament on February 20, 2017 for non-compliance with the requests.
Stephenson said that another parliamentarian was reported to the leaders of Parliament for a similar breach.
In another letter dated February 10, 2020, the commission warned Campbell that he would be referred for prosecution if he failed to comply with the request.
In May 2019, Campbell told The Gleaner that he had already responded to the requests by the commission.
Prince-Kameka concluded that based on the provisions of the IC Act, inclusive of sections 54(3)(b) and 54(4), Campbell should be charged for violating Section 43(1)(b) of the legislation for failure to provide information requested by the director of information and complaints.