Anti-corruption body wants swift action to deal with politicians under probe in new year
Published:Monday | January 1, 2024 | 12:06 AM
One of Jamaica’s anti-corruption watchdogs is pressing for the swift prosecution in 2024 of politicians who are being investigated for alleged illicit enrichment.
Director of National Integrity Action (NIA) Danielle Archer made the call in response to questions from The Gleaner about issues the NIA wants addressed in the new year.
“We have at least six members of parliament being investigated for allegations of illicit enrichment who remain in Parliament,” she noted.
Archer said the NIA also wants to see increased respect for the Integrity Commission (IC) and the abandonment of proposals to reduce its authority.
At present, a joint select committee of Parliament is reviewing the Integrity Commission Act.
The anti-corruption body came under fire from some government lawmakers last year, with senior Cabinet Minister Everald Warmington calling the IC a “rogue organisation” that “must be reigned in”.
“They must report to someone. They’re not bigger than the law, and I’ll ensure that they follow the law,” declared Warmington in June 2023 at a Jamaica Labour Party Area Two political conference in Riversdale, St Catherine.
The IC last year stated in its annual report that there were six parliamentarians and 28 public officials under investigation by the country’s single anti-corruption body for illicit enrichment.
After divulging that lawmakers were being probed for illicit gains, the IC noted that the legislators had been informed by the commission that they were being investigated.
“[The year] 2023 confirmed the intractable and complex path Jamaica travels. We survived an earthquake and have been recognised for our economic stability, yet we still are only marking time when handling corruption, transparency, and accountability issues,” Archer said.
She noted that, for the first time in Jamaica’s political history, former Speaker of the House Marisa Dalrymple Philibert resigned in the wake of a ruling by the IC’s director of corruption prosecution that she should face eight counts of corruption-related charges.
Dalrymple Philibert is expected to have her day in court in the new year, after the IC accused her of breaching the Integrity Commission Act and making false statements to the anti-corruption body in her statutory declaration for the period 2015 to 2021.
Tabling of reports
Addressing a vexed issue that prevailed in the Lower House for months last year, Archer said her organisation had concerns about the decision of current Speaker of the House Juliet Holness in withholding the opinion of the attorney general on the tabling of reports from the IC and the auditor general.
Archer also cautioned against what she described as flagrant attempts to undermine the authority of the auditor general.
She is urging the Speaker to reverse her ruling regarding the tabling of these reports in 2024.
“NIA also had grave concerns about an increasing trend that places public servants’ reputations above their office. These trends call for the implementation of a parliamentary code of conduct and the passing of an unexplained wealth order legislation.”
The NIA head is also calling for timely responses from government ministers to questions on the Order Paper, and for parliamentary leadership to debate private members’ motions on the Order Paper.