Opposition Pushes Back on FID Proposal

A suggested change to the way members of parliament's financial declarations are reviewed is drawing political reaction.

 

The proposal put forward by government minister Matthew Samuda during a recent Parliament's Integrity Commission Oversight Committee would shift responsibility for reviewing members of parliament's statutory declaration from the Integrity Commission to the Financial Investigations Division.

 

Samuda says the change should be considered as a way to address the perceived conflict in the current oversight arrangement. But Opposition Leader and PNP President Mark Golding is strongly opposing the idea.

 

 

 

 

 

Golding is rejecting a recent proposal by government minister Matthew Samuda to transfer responsibility for reviewing parliamentarians’ statutory declarations from the Integrity Commission to the Financial Investigations Division (FID).

 

He argues the move would weaken the country's anti-corruption framework and undermine the integrity commission's independence. There was a recent meeting in parliament of the oversight committee that's responsible for ensuring that the integrity commission is functioning efficiently and has the resources that it needs and generally dealing with policy issues in relation to the integrity commission and a suggestion was made that the function of the integrity commission in relation to parliamentarians where they receive our annual declarations review them scrutinize them and if necessary take action in relation to them should be removed from the integrity commission and sent to the financial investigations division which is the FID. Now that is a terrible idea and one which I certainly would never support.

 

He maintains that shifting the responsibility to the FID would remove those safeguards and leave the process more vulnerable to political influence. The integrity commission is designed with appropriate checks and balances to ensure that it can play its role properly, efficiently and transparently.

 

The FID is really a department operating within the Ministry of Finance and as we can see the appointments of the leadership of the FID can be problematic.

 

The opposition leader also accused the government of falling short in its approach to fighting corruption. We had a situation where the integrity commission's report on the prime minister had been a very controversial issue in the country and the integrity commission referred that matter to the FID because there were issues which they needed further investigation and they weren't getting the full cooperation.

 

Jamaica needs to be very wary of anything said or done by this government in the fight against corruption. The prime minister has a major unresolved issue concerning his own financial affairs which the integrity commission had reported on. There's another minister of government who has been referred for prosecution for illicit enrichment which is a serious corruption offense.