‘STEP ASIDE’

OPPOSITION LEADER Mark Golding says the Integrity Commission’s (IC) inability to certify Prime Minister (PM) Andrew Holness’ statutory declarations for a second straight year does not bode well for Jamaica’s image and has called for him to “step aside”.

“It’s not a good look, Jamaica, when we have a prime minister for years in succession who can’t have his statutory declaration certified by the Integrity Commission. It’s not a good look,” argued Golding.

He was speaking in St Mary on Sunday during a People’s National Party (PNP) political meeting where he presented the party’s slate of candidates for the next local government and general elections due in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

“The [Jamaica] Labour Party manifesto in 2016 said they were going to introduce term limits. Well, I say to the prime minister, live your word. The situation is not looking so good. Term limit sounds like a good idea in your case, step aside; give somebody else a chance. The people want a government of integrity,” the PNP president said.

Jamaica House has remained tight-lipped about Holness’ statutory declarations, which have not been certified since 2020.

It is law for both the prime minister’s and opposition leader’s filings to be gazetted and published.

The IC has repeatedly said that it was not not in a position to certify Holness’ statutory declarations but has remained mum on the reason.

Most recently, the commission told The Gleaner that it was “unable to make any comment regarding same, except to say that it is and has been operating in compliance with the provisions of Section 42(3) of the Integrity Commission Act”.

That section speaks to how the filings of both leaders are to be treated in terms of certification, gazette and publishing.

Earlier this year, the prime minister expressed concern over the non-gazetting of his 2021 declarations and said then that he was in the dark as to what was preventing the commission from publishing the document.

He has not publicly commented on the non-publication of the 2022 filings.

Integrity watchdogs have said the non-gazetting of Holness’ statutory declarations summary for the second year running must be a matter of major concern to the public, as well as of special interest to the head of government.

Meanwhile, Golding, who, along with opposition members of parliament (MP) declared that none of them is under investigation by the IC for illicit enrichment, insisted that the prime minister was aware of the six legislators who are being investigated and challenged him to name them.

In its 2022 annual report, the IC said “the commission must ensure that there is no illicit enrichment, prior to certifying a statutory declaration”.

Holness has indicated that he has enquired far and wide of government MPs and so far no one has said they are being investigated for illicit enrichment.

“We want to know who are the six members of parliament who are under investigation for illicit enrichment. Don’t hide it, tell it Andrew Holness. I know you know who they are,” Golding said to rousing applause from party supporters.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com