IC reappoints Kevon Stephenson
Published:Thursday | May 29, 2025 | 12:13 AM
Kevon Stephenson, the director of investigation at the Integrity Commission (IC), has been given the nod to lead the investigative unit at the anti-corruption body for another five years.
With the expiration of his contract on May 18 this year, the commissioners of the IC gave the no-nonsense director of investigations the vote of confidence to carry out the critical role of ferreting out corruption in the public sector.
On Monday, May 26, Stephenson was sworn in by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen as director of investigation. His first stint with the IC ran from 2020 to 2025.
The investigation division is mandated by law to investigate, broadly, allegations of non-compliance and suspected acts of corruption, as specified by the Integrity Commission Act.
The 2023-2024 annual report stated that since the establishment of the Integrity Commission, the investigation division completed and tabled more than 160 reports. Additionally, over the period 2018 to 2024, more than 150 cases have been referred to the director of corruption prosecution.
Over the tenure of his first contract with the IC, Stephenson has sent to Parliament several major reports which have been debated widely among members of the public and the political directorate.
Notable investigations completed and sent to Parliament by Stephenson include a recommendation that former Speaker of the House of Representatives Marisa Dalrymple Philibert be slapped with eight criminal charges for making a false statement in her statutory declaration filings between 2015 and 2021.
When she appeared before the Half-Way Tree Parish Court, the former Speaker pled guilty for breaching the Integrity Commission Act and was fined $900,000.
In September last year, the director of investigation completed a report into the statutory declarations of Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness. The report was referred to both Tax Administration Jamaica and the Financial Investigation Division. The report highlighted almost $500 million in transactions for three companies that filed nil tax returns.
The IC said “there can be no finality” in the certification of the prime minister’s assets for 2019-2022 without further probe.
The anti-corruption body made the referral to the Financial Investigation Division over concerns about the funding and operations of companies linked to the prime minister.
Holness has since been granted permission to pursue a judicial review to invalidate two IC reports that questioned his statutory declarations and financial dealings.
The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing, even as he rejects the findings of the IC report.
In October 2023, Mark Barnett, president of the National Water Commission (NWC), got into hot water with the IC when he built an apartment complex allegedly in violation of building permits.
The director of investigation’s report later led to a decision by the NWC board to send Barnett on administrative leave. To date, he has not been reinstated.
The IC director of investigation also penned several hard-hitting reports which called out parliamentarians for breaching the IC law.
Member of Parliament (MP) Mikael Phillips, former MP Dwayne Vaz, and former Senator Leslie Campbell all got into trouble with the IC for not submitting requested information pertaining to their statutory declarations. They were required to pay fines for the breaches.