Trevor Munroe | Alongside 'supporting oversight’, improve efficiency, strengthen accountability

‘Supporting oversight’ is how The Gleaner editorial of June 2, summed up former Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s remarks at a recent Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal symposium. Golding’s comments came during a time when public outrage and INDECOM’s speedy investigations prompted the quick laying of charges against the police officer implicated in Latoya Bulgin’s killing, at a time when the Constitutional Court overruled the prime minister’s grant of a mining permit to Bengal Development Limited and at a time when the government passed the NaRRA legislation without meaningful public consultation or adequate oversight. 

All of this brought two things to mind: 

First, the extraordinary nature of the bipartisan civil society consensus, which over the last 50 years underpinned the design and passage of the laws and institutions which strengthened accountability, transparency and citizen empowerment in Jamaica. 

Successive Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and People’s National Party (PNP) prime ministers and administrations, in collaboration with civil society, produced a democratic legacy which belongs to no one side, but to all of Jamaica. 

Second, these circumstances reminded me that we must collaborate to update these laws and institutions, particularly to make our democracy serve our people more efficiently. However, in so doing, we must be careful to preserve, not erode and strengthen, not weaken, the resilience of Jamaica’s democracy – not so much to withstand sudden assault, but more so to detect and resist gradual democratic backsliding.

Let us remind ourselves of some milestones along the consensus road we Jamaicans have travelled, a road on which we need to advance further, not retreat; a journey on which all of us must resist any turning back.

• 1973, under PNP Prime Minister Michael Manley, the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act established a commission (predecessor to the current Integrity Commission, established under PM Holness), to give oversight and certify, where appropriate, annual declarations of income, assets and liabilities of MPs, including the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition. The Auditor General, under this legislation, was – and remains – a member of the commission. The current effort to remove this officer from the Integrity Commission must be resisted.
• 1986, under JLP Prime Minister Edward Seaga, the Contractor General’s Act was passed and the Office of the Contractor General was established to investigate and report on the propriety or irregularity in the award of public contracts to private entities by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). On a quarterly basis, awards above a certain sum were disclosed to the public. This practice was terminated in 2020. We need to reverse this imposition of secrecy and restore transparency. 
• 1992-2006, under PNP Prime Minister P.J. Patterson:
  • The Corruption Prevention Act, which made ‘illicit enrichment’ or unexplained wealth an offence in Jamaica, in line with the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (IACAC). The constitutionality of this law is now being challenged before the courts by Prime Minister Holness.
  • The Public Defender (Interim) Act, which established the Office of the Public Defender as a watchdog to assist citizens in defending their rights against abuse. This office again proved its worth in piloting citizens’ action to uphold their right to a ‘healthy and productive environment’ against the Bengal Development Limited’s mining in the Dry Harbour Mountains.
  • The Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act (PBMAA) and the Executive Agencies Act, each of which required public bodies and executive agencies to report to us, the people, each year, what they have done and how they have spent our money. These laws are being breached and need to be enforced against delinquent entities. Each of these acts required boards or advisory bodies to be part of the governance structure of public bodies and executive agencies, respectively. Despite widespread public objection, this requirement has been bypassed by the NaRRA legislation.
  • The Access to Information Act, which, subject to stated exceptions, legislated the right of the public to access documents relating to decisions by MDAs. Proposals to strengthen transparency under this act by a Joint Select Committee of Parliament, 15 years ago, are yet to be implemented.
• 2006, under PNP Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (Interim) Act, which effectively removed from politicians the power, abused over decades, to determine constituency boundaries and to manipulate voters’ lists. It is now 20 years that this law remains without constitutional protection and ‘interim’ thereby subject to being weakened by any prime minister or parliamentary majority so-minded.
• 2007-2011, under JLP Prime Minister Bruce Golding:
  • The passage of the Independent Commission of Investigations Act, creating INDECOM as an independent entity to investigate and recommend, where necessary, punitive action against abuse of power by members of the security forces, especially in regards to fatal shootings.
  • The initiation of the practice of opposition members chairing all sessional committees of Parliament, to increase accountability of the Executive and parliamentary scrutiny over government policies. This practice was discontinued by Prime Minister Holness in 2020. Government members now chair all sessional committees, with the exception of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC).
  • The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, passed in 2011, arguably the most important legislation since Independence, to guard against dictatorship from any quarter and strengthen Jamaican democracy. This law, now Chapter Three of the Jamaican Constitution, enacted that “except as demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society” no prime minister, no parliament, no commissioner of police or army chief of staff, no State of Public Emergency can infringe, abridge, nor abrogate our right to life, without due process; our right to freedom of movement and assembly; our right to seek and disseminate information; our right to equal treatment, with neither discrimination nor favouritism based on politics or gender; and the right to a healthy and productive environment, to name but a few. This charter should be reviewed with a view to strengthen, not weaken, the Jamaican people’s rights.

Alongside this comprehensive, bipartisan, all-of-society, democratic structure, former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, in a nationally televised broadcast 16 years ago, committed to a wide range of additional reforms:

• The appointment of a special prosecutor to fight corruption, subsequently incorporated into the Integrity Commission Act by PM Holness, passed in 2017.
• Whistle-blower legislation, enacted as the Public Disclosures Act in 2011 under PM Golding
• Regulation of Political Party Financing, incorporated in the Representation of the People Act in 2017, under PM Holness.
• Provisions for Impeachment legislation, as well as term limits for the Office of Prime Minister, were drafted and tabled, but not passed, by PM Golding. PM Holness, in 2016, had committed to completing both of these, but they remain outstanding.

History now places - on the administration of Prime Minister Holness, and on civil society organisations, including our service clubs, our churches and community groups, as well as the private sector - the responsibility to resist autocracy and preserve the gains that have been made along the consensus road. Collaboration and consultation are key requirements in building a democracy that serves the people efficiently, while at the same time strengthening accountability and transparency on the part of those entrusted to lead.

Professor Trevor Munroe is the founding director of National Integrity Action. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com