Warmington slams Integrity Commission as a 'rogue organisation'

Everald Warmington, a senior member of the Andrew Holness-led Cabinet, declared Sunday that Jamaica's anti-corruption agency, the Integrity Commission (IC), is a "rogue organisation" and "must be reined in".

"They must report to someone. They're not bigger than the law and I'll ensure that they follow the law. It's a rogue organisation," said the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. He was speaking at a ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Two political conference in Riversdale, St Catherine. He's the chairman of the area council. 

"We are not against them investigating corruption but... they must work within the ambit of the Act and the law," he added. 

Government members have been upset about the IC's widely-condemned handling of a conflict of interest report involving the prime minister. They have also been peeved about a gun licences report and its treatment of former National Security Minister Robert Montague. 

Warmington also complained that the IC, which, among other things, investigates the income, assets and liabilities of parliamentarians, was revisiting declarations that it had initially cleared. 

"These guys go back 10 and 20 years asking some people to give more information on your declaration that was accepted already," he said, adding that "they wrote me and asked me for more information on one of my returns and I gave them a copy of what Panton signed that year and said they found my return to be normal... I not taking that nonsense from any of them." 

The IC is chaired by retired Court of Appeal President Justice Seymour Panton. 

Warmington reiterated his recommendation that the IC should not be allowed to open investigations into income declarations made before it was established by law in 2017. "Their responsibility starts in 2017 [and] beyond that, it has to be an investigation that was already going on and they completing."

The IC was formed out of a merger of the Corruption Prevention Commission, the Office of the Contractor General and the Integrity Commission (of Parliamentarians). It answers to Parliament through an oversight committee. 

Warmington has recommended removing the IC's prosecutorial powers and opening it up to lawsuits, suggestions that some critics have warned could weaken the powers of Jamaica's main corruption watchdog. 

The minister's outburst comes days after Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said in Parliament that the IC "lacks integrity" and that government lawmakers "don't have trust and confidence" in its reports. 

Chuck was reacting to the commission's amendment of a 2022 report in which it criticised former ministers of national security Peter Bunting, of the opposition People's National Party, and Montague of the JLP.

The commission indicated last week that Bunting acted within the law in granting gun licences but has maintained its criticisms of Montague, who has accused the body of treating him unfairly. 

The IC has responded to some of the criticisms levelled against it, saying last week that it "will not be frightened or intimidated to act in any way that is contrary to the public interest. Nor will it subject itself to the undue influence or desires of any person, official or authority, while discharging its lawful functions under the law". 

Warmington's comments also come amid a lack of clarity over why the prime minister's statutory declaration of his income and assets for 2021 has not been cleared. 

The IC tweeted in October last year that “the commission is not in a position to certify it, and in the circumstances will be unable to comment any further on the issue”.

And last month, Holness said the commission wrote to him with a similar message contained in the tweet, “so I am not in a position to say what the issue of the Integrity Commission is”.

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