Five PNP, three JLP politicians reported to Integrity Commission for illicit enrichment
News

Five PNP, three JLP politicians reported to Integrity Commission for illicit enrichment

A months-long probe has uncovered that at least three politicians linked to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and five linked to the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have been referred to the director of investigation at the Integrity Commission (IC) following allegations of corruption/illicit enrichment.

In almost all of the cases the allegations have been made to the IC by people who claim to have information surrounding acts of corruption/illicit enrichment, but there is no documentation to support these allegations, based on a newspaper probe.

 
In its 2023/2024 annual report released in July, the IC reported that two more parliamentarians had been referred for investigation based on allegations of illicit enrichment.

This was in addition to six Members of Parliament who were referred in the previous reporting year (2022-2023).

PNP President Mark Golding has repeatedly stated that no person on the Opposition benches is among the eight, but a probe revealed that two ranking members of the PNP have been accused of laundering corruptly obtained gains and failing to report their total assets to the IC.

In one of the allegations a high-ranking PNP politician is accused of using international banking accounts to hide millions of dollars in assets not included in his annual declarations of income, assets and liabilities to the IC.

Checks have also revealed that a senior municipal corporation official, who is linked to the PNP, has also been reported to the IC’s director of investigation based on an allegation of illicit enrichment.

He reportedly under-reported his assets to the IC by not including money gained through a controversial trucking programme.

According to the allegation, the municipal corporation official is in breach of the Corruption Prevention Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

There is also a claim that the local government official misappropriated funds sent to the corporation by the Ministry of Local Government for repairs to a State-owned facility.

Similar allegations have been made about the three politicians linked to the JLP with one claim of undeclared assets totalling millions of dollars being hidden in international financial institutions.

JLP Leader Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that he is not aware of any of the party’s parliamentarians being investigated for illicit enrichment by the IC and that his consultations elicited a negative response.

Off Canvas Menu