‘I dare you!’

Opposition Senator Lambert Brown has argued that the Government does not have the courage to take legislation to Parliament to remove Section 14(5) of the Corruption Prevention Act, which sets out the offence of illicit enrichment. Instead, he charged, the Government is attempting to get the courts to strike it down as unconstitutional.

In a swift response, Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley dismissed the assertion by Brown as “absolutely false”.

“As a lawmaker, I expect the senator to appreciate that if a litigant intends to strike down a law, the attorney general would be named as a defendant in whatever action is carried,” Fitz-Henley contended.

“This notion that there is an attempt by members on this side to strike down the illicit enrichment law and there may be some intention to carry legislation to the Parliament to achieve that, is absolutely false,” he insisted.

During a testy exchange in the Upper House yesterday, the government senator accused Brown of misleading the Parliament on that issue.

However, Brown challenged the Government to repeal the illicit enrichment clause in the Corruption Prevention Act.

“They are cowards, they are hoping that some judge, somewhere, someday will say it’s unconstitutional when the Government of Andrew Michael Holness has the majority to change the law on illicit enrichment,” Brown declared in the Senate, while debating the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, MOCA, (Amendment of First Schedule) Order, 2024.

“I dare you to bring such legislation here and avoid the cowardly route of trying to get a constitutional action in the court,” Brown said.

KICKBACKS IN CORRUPTION

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Andrew Holness filed papers in the Supreme Court asking it to strike down a law used by the Integrity Commission (IC) to probe public officials for illicit enrichment, calling it “unconstitutional”.

Holness claimed that the investigation into his statutory declarations spanning 2019 to 2022 was premised on what he believes is an “unconstitutional” provision in the Corruption Prevention Act – Section 14(5) which outlines that a person who fails to satisfactorily explain their assets relative to their earnings commits the offence of illicit enrichment.

Noting that the IC has said that “eight among us” are being investigated for illicit enrichment, Brown bemoaned the fact that nearly 10 per cent of the legislature was under the searchlight of the anti-corruption body for allegedly owning assets that were disproportionate to their income.

With MOCA having some 60 per cent of its complement, Brown urged the Government to ensure that the agency was properly resourced to go after those involved in illicit enrichment.

The opposition senator argued that with corruption eating away five per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, it was critical for MOCA to target the kingfish of white- collar crimes and to bring to book the crime lords of corruption.

“If we can get MOCA to deal with the corruption, then the contractors who put one inch of asphalt where four inches of asphalt should go, we would have better roads. We know that what is involved in some of the corruption is kickbacks,” he said.

‘NOTHING UNLAWFUL ABOUT MULTIPLE TRANSACTIONS’

Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Kamina Johnson Smith, sought to defend the Government’s record in its fight against corruption.

She indicated that the Government has established a strong institutional framework to fight corruption, expecting that “the legal framework would be fair” and protect persons from “any weaponisation of its tools”.

Johnson Smith also sought to put up a defence in relation to information that formed part of the IC’s investigative report into the prime minister’s statutory declaration.

“There is nothing in this world that is illegal or unlawful about having multiple transactions,” she said.

The IC has examined more than 3,600 transactions involving 28 bank accounts linked to the prime minister.

“Anybody who does business or even operates in a personal capacity…someone who is a hardworking, growing person who is seeking to grow their wealth and who is seeking to do better for themselves and their family is going to have bank transactions,” Johnson Smith said.

She noted that the Proceeds of Crime Act and Know Your Customer requirements create the flags where something is improper.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com