Is Warmington under probe?

IS THE controversial lawmaker Everald Warmington under investigation by Jamaica’s single anti-corruption body?

The question has arisen after the Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Western on Sunday revealed that the Integrity Commission has written to him requesting more information on one of the statutory declarations he submitted in the past.

Warmington said he responded to the commission by sending a copy of a letter that the Chairman of the commission Ret. Justice Seymour Panton signed for the year in question for which additional information was being sought. He indicated that the commission signalled that year that his income, assets and liabilities were “in order”.

However, Warmington complained that despite his response, the commission wrote to him requesting more information.

“All I do is just send the letter to them because I not tekking that nonsense from any of dem,” he declared while addressing Labourites at a Jamaica Labour Party Region 2 Conference at Riversdale in St Catherine on Sunday.

Under the Integrity Commission Act, an investigation can be initiated if a person fails, without reasonable cause, to provide any information that the Director of Information and Complaints may require in accordance with the provisions of the law.

The Gleaner could not confirm if the reported interactions between Warmington and the Integrity Commission took place as directors and commissioners of the corruption watchdog are gagged under the Integrity Commission Act and could face stringent penalties if they divulge any matter relating to the statutory declaration of public servants, including parliamentarians, or disclose any probe that was under way.

Section 56 (1) of the Integrity Commission Act states that a person who has an official duty under the law shall deal with as “secret and confidential”, all information, statutory declarations… “and all other matters relating to any matter before the commission”.

Warmington has been strident in his calls for sweeping changes to the Integrity Commission Act.

The lawmaker sits on the parliamentary committee reviewing the Integrity Commission Act, 2017 and is also a member of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee of Parliament.

In what appears to have been an unprecedented move, the Joint Select Committee reviewing the law gave approval for Warmington to make a submission that will be examined and could be accepted for implementation.

The St Catherine South Western MP recommended that the commission’s prosecutorial powers be exercised and the power to prosecute be reverted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. He also wants the auditor general to be removed from the list of commissioners.

Further, Warmington wants to scrap provisions in the current law that allows the anti-corruption body to request information from lawmakers that predates the establishment of the commission in 2018.

Gleaner columnist Peter Espeut believes that politicians reviewing the Integrity Commission Act that applies to them constitute a conflict of interest. “Even if you are not under investigation it is still a conflict of interest,” he told The Gleaner yesterday.

Espeut suggested that there should be “an independent committee, independent of politicians, reviewing the Integrity legislation, not the people that are likely to be prosecuted that’s a conflict of interest”.

He called for a change in the format of how the Integrity Commission Act was now being reviewed.