Golding rips Government for 'misleading' public on status of auditor general's reports

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has accused the Jamaica Labour Party-led Government of impeding the dissemination of information on matters of public interests, and has denounced as scandalous the revelation that two reports sent by Auditor General Pamela Monroe-Ellis to Parliament for tabling were returned by Speaker of the House Juliet Holness.

Golding was speaking to journalists following a People's National Party (PNP) National Executive Council meeting held at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on Sunday.

"I think it is scandalous! The whole approach of this Government is to try and find ways of inhibiting the flow of information about things that are of a public interest - to do with how the country is being managed by them," said Golding, who is also president of the PNP.

He continued: "Imagine, two important special audit reports on the performance of two agencies - the Tax Administration Jamaica, and the Financial Services Commission, a regulatory body that has gone through this whole SSL (Stocks and Securities Ltd) saga and had its whole leadership changed. That is what was sent to Parliament two or more months ago and was not tabled, and when I raised it, in order to pretend I was not telling the truth, and to mislead the public that I was not telling the truth, the reports were sent back after I spoke by the Speaker of the House to the auditor general and then the deputy prime minister said that I was telling a lie when it was absolutely true."

At the same time, Golding said he was not cognisant of why the Integrity Commission issued a recent statement stating that no reports were outstanding.

"The reports that are outstanding are auditor general reports, which is what I said," said Golding, adding that the "public is anxiously waiting" on the Government to release reports on the so-called "illicit six".

Responding to questions about his reaction to the prime minister and other Government members staging a walk out during his Budget Debate presentation last Tuesday, he said, "I don't hold a grudge against somebody who has acted in an intemperate and misguided way. I hope [the prime minister] can learn from his mistakes and come again in a better way. So, if he wants to meet with me to discuss anything of importance to the Jamaican people, I'm happy to meet."

The members walked out in protest over Golding's comments that the head of the legislature and executive were not independent of each other.

Golding emphasised that constitutional reform remained a top priority for the PNP and expressed disappointment in the prime minister's alleged reluctance to engage in relevant discussions.

"I would always encourage greater consultation and dialogue, and I'm always willing to participate in it," he said. "He (the prime minister) is the one who has been rather reluctant to engage with us."

Positing that he was unfazed by the walkout, Golding said, "I delivered the rest of my speech on the wall by Duke Street outside of the Parliament, and it was recorded. I didn't even have a microphone, but it went viral, and the people heard what I had to say, and so the prime minister was not able to escape what I had to say, which was why he walked out, because he saw what was coming next. "

Golding also criticised the prime minister, stating that his Budget presentation lacked new ideas and many of the ideas were ''adopted" from the PNP.

According to Golding, the PNP supports the concept of housing programmes, but the Government had failed to deliver affordable housing options.

"The performance from this Government in that area has been extremely weak. There has been a lot of construction in the country, but it's at price points that are really for investors, not for people who are desperately trying to find and buy their first home. So, if they're going to put more emphasis on that, that's great."

Echoing similar sentiments was the Opposition's spokesperson on finance, Julian Robinson, who said, "The issues on housing, I don't think go far enough, because the real problem with housing is affordable housing at a price point below $15 million."

olivia.brown@gleanerjm.com