Campbell accuses Integrity Commission of misplacing documents
Published:Saturday | November 9, 2024 | 12:10 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Former State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Leslie Campbell, has accused the Integrity Commission (IC) of misplacing some of the information for which the commission had charged him for failing to provide.
The former government senator was last year charged for breaches of the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act and the Integrity Commission Act following a recommendation from the IC director of corruption prosecution, Keisha Prince-Kameka.
Campbell, however, has maintained his innocence and will know his fate on December 12, following the completion of his trial yesterday in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.
Nothing to hide
Attorney-at-law Matthew Hyatt, who is representing the former Jamaica Labour Party member of parliament, told The Gleaner that “The defence submitted that Mr Campbell submitted all the information relating to his Sagicor bank accounts, and for the period ending December 2019 and September 2020, the Integrity Commission misplaced his documents.”
“Mr Campbell filed all his statutory declarations between 2016 and 2020 as MP. He was frank and open in every declaration and has nothing to hide,” Hyatt stated.
Hyatt also told the court that Campbell had declared several insurance policies and the copies of these policies were made available to the IC, but indicated that the surrender value for each policy was zero.
According to Hyatt, his client “did all that was reasonably necessary to satisfy the IC and his prosecution is baseless, selective and without merit”.
The commission’s director of investigation, Kevon Stephenson, had revealed that the IC made 39 requests in writing between 2016 and 2020 for Campbell to provide information to the anti-corruption body, but the former lawmaker only partially complied with the requests.
The Integrity Commission said Campbell provided five responses over the period.
The commission said it gave a deadline of December 24, 2021 for Campbell to provide the information requested, prior to the recommendations last July that he be charged, but the ex-state minister had not complied.
The IC said that the outstanding information includes the surrender value for two life insurance policies and the account balance linked to a bank loan.
The anti-corruption agency had reported Campbell to the leadership of Parliament on February 20, 2017, for non-compliance with the requests.