The Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) has expressed concerns with recently announced changes in the procedure of tabling reports from the Integrity Commission (IC) and the Auditor General’s Department in Parliament.

Juliet Holness, Speaker of the House of Representatives, recently announced in Parliament that annual and special reports by the IC will go to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee for deliberation first and then tabled in Parliament, along with the committee’s report.

Holness also said that reports on investigations by the IC will be tabled ‘as soon as possible’ after submission to Parliament.

In a statement on Wednesday, November 15, JAMP argued that the changes will delay the time it takes for the people of Jamaica, their political representatives, and the media to have access to the findings of anti-corruption reports.

It said it is not of the view that the decisions are grounded in the proper interpretation of Jamaica’s legislation.

“The opinion provided by the Parliamentary Legal Counsel advised that the law is silent on the question of when the Integrity Commission reports are to be tabled and that the ‘power of determination rests in the Speaker and the House as a whole body and this power may be utilised to set out parliamentary rules and procedures in relation to these reports.

“In contrast, what we have witnessed is a unilateral decision of the Speaker issued by decree and the insistence on the part of other Government members of the House that the Speaker ‘is not always right but the ruling is always final’. This claim of finality and of no right to interrogate is unprecedented and there is no law or standing order that can be pointed to, to offer support for such. It must not go unchallenged,” JAMP argued.

It further noted that despite the insistence that the Speaker’s ruling is to ensure compliance with the laws of Jamaica, it has achieved the very opposite.

“The Speaker has erroneously read Section 30 of the Financial Administration and Audit Act to be providing a minister with up to two months to comment on a report prior to tabling. However, Section 30 addresses a specific type of report ‘Audit of Accounts of Public Body by Auditor General’. This refers strictly to audits of financial reports and could not apply to the ‘Human Resources, Administration and Procurement Practices of the Transport Authority’ report that was recently delayed for three months (July to September) by the Minister of Transport and Mining,”

THE JAMAICA ACCOUNTABILITY METER PORTAL (JAMP)

JAMP said the error in misapplying the law demonstrates the need for openness and full transparency in the public.

It is, therefore, calling on the Speaker of the House and the Government to share the legal advice of the Attorney General Chambers to satisfy Jamaicans their rights to information and proper governance.

“We are, therefore, calling on the Speaker of the House to publicly release the opinion of the Attorney General’s Chambers and if the Speaker insists upon retaining secrecy, we call upon the Government of Jamaica to instruct the Attorney General Chamber to publicly release same,” JAMP said.