Integrity Commission has power to make referrals to FID – accountability watchdog
Published:Thursday | September 19, 2024 | 12:10 AM
Executive Director of the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) Jeanette Calder has dismissed an assertion by a senior government lawmaker that the Integrity Commission does not have the power to refer an individual to the Financial Investigations Division (FID) for investigation.
Yesterday, Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson said the anti-corruption body had no authority to send matters to the FID for investigation.
In its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the Director of Investigation, Kevon Stephenson, said there was sufficient basis on which to make a referral to the commissioner general of Tax Administration Jamaica and the FID for a determination to be made as to the appropriateness of the filing of nil tax returns by Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Stephenson also wants the FID to determine whether there is any financial impropriety on the part of the companies owned or part-owned by the prime minister.
An investigative report by the Integrity Commission into the statutory declarations filed by the prime minister has shown that three companies linked to him carried out transactions amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars and filed nil tax returns for the years 2021 and 2022.
A nil income tax return indicates that a company falls below the taxable income and, therefore, did not pay taxes during the year.
Tavares-Finson, in a statement to the media yesterday, said: “I am satisfied that the Integrity Commission has no such authority to refer any matter to any agency or competent authority to initiate an investigation.”
He further stated that the Parliament also has no power to refer anyone for investigation by the FID.
Speaking yesterday with Beyond The Headlines’ Host Dionne Jackson Miller, the JAMP executive director declared “without any fear of contradiction that contrary to what has already been said, the Integrity Commission can refer matters to the Financial Investigations Division”.
‘Perfectly normal and OK’
She further argued that any Jamaican who has a concern about financial crimes can reach out to the FID to carry out an investigation.
Calder outlined that the FID signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Integrity Commission in 2021 “specifically to facilitate this”.
She added, “I am just letting the public know that it is perfectly normal and OK.”
At the signing of the MOU on December 16, 2021, both investigative bodies indicated that it was aimed at strengthening both organisations’ response to, among other things, (public) corruption, money laundering, organised crime, fraud, and financial crime.
The MOU was signed by the Integrity Commission’s Executive Director Greg Christie and the then FID Chief Technical Director Selvin Hay.
Section 7 (12) of the Integrity Commission law states that the commission might, with the approval of the minister, enter into an MOU or other agreement with a competent authority.
The FID is listed among several ‘competent authorities’ in the legislation.
In the Integrity Commission’s investigative report on the prime minister, Stephenson said that “there can be no finality” in the certification of the prime minister’s assets for 2019-2022 without further probe and urged the Parliament to support the recommendation for the FID to investigate.