The Integrity Commission has broken its silence to address concerns raised by critics in relation to a recent report which referred Prime Minister Holness to the Director of Corruption Prosecution.
The initial report revealed that during the period of 2006-2009, Prime Minister Holness issued several Government contracts totaling $21.8 million to West Con Construction Limited.
The report further revealed that the company’s directors Robert Garvin and Donovan Simpson have known Holness for more than 20 years with Garvin being personally known to the Prime Minister.
A day after this report was disseminated in the media, it was revealed that no criminal charges will be laid against the Prime Minister.
Since then, scores of individuals including Senators and representatives from Private Sector Organization chided that the partial report has tainted the country’s reputation and has caused repulsion from both local and international bodies.
The Commission however alluded in a statement that it took the time to read the findings before presenting them in the public domain and further stated that hat it received the ruling from the Director of Corruption Prosecution on January 12, approximately one month before the report by the Director of Investigation was tabled in Parliament on February 14.
The Commission also expressed that they received confirmation on February 15 that the report had been tabled in Parliament and took the decision on February 16 to make the Director of Corruption Prosecution’s ruling public.
“Notwithstanding that there is no provision for the tabling of a Ruling, the Commission has taken the position that in the interest of full and early disclosure, such a Ruling ought to be communicated to Parliament, and the public advised.
“The Ruling of the Director of Corruption Prosecution in a matter where a report has been sent to Parliament, cannot be communicated to anyone before the report has been tabled.
This is so by virtue of Section 53 (3) of the Integrity Commission Act which states that “until the tabling of a report in Parliament, all matters under investigation by the Director of Investigation or any other person involved in such investigation shall be kept confidential and no report or public statement shall be made by the Commission or any other person in relation to the initiation or conduct of (the) investigation,” the statement alluded.
The Commission also maintained that the entity’s directors are independent of each other, and the Executive Director has no control over the content of an investigation.
