Thread by @AndrewHolnessJM

#THREAD: Under my administration, Jamaica now has one of the most advanced and robust anti-corruption framework certainly in this region. My administration passed the legislation to establish the Integrity Commission and MOCA.
It is still in its early stages and not perfected.

One element of the framework introduced by me is the publishing of the summary financial position of the Parliamentary leaders of the country. The first publishing acts as the benchmark against which future declarations can be judged.

This ensures that the country can first have knowledge of the financial position of their leaders through transparent disclosure and then overtime judge the movement of their leaders financial position. This will build confidence in those elected to administer public affairs.

Before this addition to the law, I am aware that at least 3 Parliamentarians would have disclosed their financial position to the public. While this was a good individual attempt at transparency it was haphazard.

Under this section of the Integrity Commission Act, the Commission checks and verifies the Statutory Declaration of the Parliamentary leaders and then certifies it to the public in a standardized form.

The process of examining and then certifying is very granular, involving queries and cross checks.

The law does not require the Parliamentary leader’s declarations to be published together at the same time, though this would be ideal, it would not always be practical or possible given the current resources available to the Commission.

Furthermore, Parliamentarians do not submit their declarations to the Commission at the same time within the period 1st January to 31st March of the year following the reporting period.

It is therefore possible that depending on the time of submission, declarations for publishing can be processed and completed on different schedules. Also, the time of responses to queries can lengthen the overall process of examination and certification.

I believe that it would not be appropriate to pressure the Commission in doing their examination and ensuring that what they certify to the public captures the true picture.

In this new anti-corruption pardigm, in which the quasi-judicial Commission is fully independent and empowered to act, public leaders should be careful not to appear to bring pressure or rush the Commission in the conduct of their duties...

... in as much as we would all want to see results expeditiously. This very act could be interpreted as an effort to influence the Commission in its function.

The public itself should exercise keen discernment in this new Paradigm of anti corruption in which there will be less talk and more action.