IC rules no charge against PM Holness for alleged statutory declaration breaches, but sends report to FID

While the Integrity Commission has determined that no charge should be laid against Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness in relation to reports of statutory declaration breaches, the matter is not yet over.

This, as the report from the director of investigations, has been sent to the Financial Investigations Division, FID.

The report, addendum and ruling of the commission were tabled in the Lower House, today.

The tabling of the reports follows investigations into the declarations submitted by Dr. Holness for the period 2019 to 2022, and allegations  that he owns assets disproportionate to his lawful earnings and that he made false statements in his declarations by way of omission, contrary to law.

In its attached ruling, the commission’s Director of Corruption Prosecution stated that upon review of the report submitted by the Director of Investigations, and after careful consideration it was determined that no charge be laid against the Prime Minister.

And, in its letter to Parliament the commission noted that the FID  has been asked to look into possible breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act.

The commission has requested that parliament supports this referral to the FID.

Additionally, the commission pointed out that there can be no certification of a statutory declaration until the Director of Information and Complaints is satisfied that the declaration has been duly completed.

Once satisfied, the Director will inform the commission.

The commission also requested that parliament develops policy and legislation to deal with the commercial and corporate activities of ministers of government and the likelihood of conflicts of interest arising therefrom.

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.