WHO IS IT?

JUSTICE MINISTER Delroy Chuck says that speculation about which parliamentarians are being investigated for illicit enrichment by the Integrity Commission (IC) was not “good” for lawmakers.

Chuck made the comments as questions continue to swirl about the six legislators who are suspected to have acquired wealth illicitly.

“Every one of my colleagues I have checked with, nobody has any idea who they are. Wrongdoers, basically, deny it. I accept that. But the sooner the IC can indicate that they have completed their investigation and these persons will be charged … . The sooner you can report to Parliament, the better,” said Chuck, adding that he is unaware of who the lawmakers are.

At a meeting of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee of Parliament (ICOC) yesterday, Chuck said that if the persons under investigation failed to respond to the IC, the anti-corruption body should summon them.

However, he argued that “to leave the speculation out there is not good for us in the House because everybody is looking at one another to ask, ‘who is it?’”

CLAIM BRUSHED ASIDE

IC Director of Information and Complaints Craig Beresford had earlier brushed aside a claim by Chuck that the anti-corruption body has been net fishing when it comes to reviewing statutory declarations of public servants.

“If you are going to do spearfishing, then you have to do more targeting, but at the moment, you are doing net fishing, which you are lucky if you do catch anything,” Chuck said.

However, Beresford disagreed with the chairman’s analysis, adding that the IC has placed the spotlight on high-risk groups in the public sector.

In its 2022 annual report, the IC divulged that six parliamentarians and 28 public officials were being investigated for illicit enrichment.

Chuck insisted that he has not seen where the statutory declarations have exposed “this wide group of persons to charges of corruption. ... Filing of declarations has not really assisted the process of deterring or eliminating corruption.

“To the best of my knowledge, all I am seeing from the annual reports are, basically, persons who fail to file and you take them to court or they do not respond to you because you ask for certain information and you take them to court,” he said.

PREMATURE CONCLUSION?

ICOC member Julian Robinson cautioned Chuck about his conclusions, saying that they might be premature.

Chuck opined that he would have preferred if the IC completed the investigations and dispatched the findings to Parliament for tabling rather than mentioning them in the annual report.

Beresford argued that the annual report is a reflection of the work that the oversight body does and how taxpayers’ money is being utilised.

Robinson concurred, saying that the IC has an obligation to inform the public about the work it has been doing based on its annual $1.2 billion allocation.

Members of the Opposition have declared that they have not been contacted by the IC in relation to any investigation into illicit enrichment.

In August, both Chuck and his Cabinet colleague Aubyn Hill told The Gleaner that they had also not been contacted.

Around the same time, the Andrew Holness-led Government imposed a gag order on Cabinet ministers and government lawmakers from commenting on matters relating to the IC.

The prime minister later said that he had contacted some government lawmakers to ascertain if they were under an IC probe for illicit enrichment but elicited a negative response.

He has not indicated publicly whether he had reached out to the other members since then.

Meanwhile, Chuck declared that the Government wants the IC to succeed as corruption has a debilitating effect on society and cannot be supported.

He urged the commission to use the Protected Disclosures legislation more effectively to target persons who are involved in corrupt practices.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com