PNP presses Holness to remove Wheatley after Integrity Commission flags illicit enrichment

The People’s National Party (PNP) used a press briefing on 18 June 2026 to demand that Minister without Portfolio Dr Andrew Wheatley be removed from cabinet immediately, after the Integrity Commission concluded he breached corruption laws and the Director of Corruption Prosecutions recommended four criminal charges against him.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding, Finance Spokesman Julian Robinson, and Senator Cleveland Tomlinson said the most serious recommendation involves illicit enrichment — wealth that cannot be traced to lawful income. Robinson noted it would be the first time a sitting member of parliament has faced that charge.

According to the opposition’s reading of the commission’s report, covering 2013 to 2022, Wheatley’s lawful income totalled about $187 million while his spending and asset acquisitions reached roughly $352 million, leaving $164 million unexplained. Tomlinson said deposits across four personal accounts amounted to about $595 million, with $168 million still unsupported after transfers and other adjustments were reviewed.

Robinson highlighted several findings he said undermined Wheatley’s credibility. These included a claimed $13 million sale of Western Medical Center in 2013, allegedly paid in cash to a buyer the commission found had left Jamaica years earlier; references to a UWIN Antigua investment scheme the commission could not verify; roughly $143 million in rental income Wheatley could not fully substantiate; more than $50 million in Bank of Nova Scotia loans not declared; and sales from East Kirkland Heights strata lots omitted from statutory declarations.

Golding said Wheatley should step aside while facing prosecution and called on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to act without delay. He also questioned why Wheatley was returned to cabinet in September 2025 despite receiving an illicit-enrichment notice in January 2024.

The briefing also touched on a United States arrangement to send third-country nationals to Jamaica, conflicting accounts of who initiated the deal, and a heated exchange in Parliament the previous day that Golding said began when Holness twice told an opposition member to “shut up.”