KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Integrity Commission has now completed the delivery of a specially developed series of 12 Anti-Corruption, Good Governance and Integrity Sensitization Workshops for Jamaica’s opposition leader and the members of the opposition shadow cabinet.
The workshops commenced on Monday, November 15, 2021, and were completed on Monday, May 30, 2022. They were the same workshops that were administered by the Commission to the prime minister of Jamaica and his cabinet ministers, between November 2020 and February 2021.
The workshop modules were designed by the Commission to cover a wide range of anti-corruption, integrity and good governance subject areas. They were also developed to impart critical information about the Commission’s statutory mandates, powers and enforcement functions, and Jamaica’s corruption laws.
Included in the topics that were covered were: An overview of Jamaica’s anti-corruption institutional and legislative frameworks; the problem of corruption, inclusive of the various types of corruption, the costs of corruption, where Jamaica stands on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and why corruption must be confronted; the foundation responsibility of a country’s leaders and Lawmakers to tackle corruption; the principles of good governance, integrity, ethical conduct and accountability in public life; how to avoid conflicts of interest; the importance of the rule of law; the roles and responsibilities of the cabinet, parliament, and accounting, accountable and public officers; and the fundamental obligation of public servants to serve the public interest.
Additionally, the Workshops also focused on the government of Jamaica’s public procurement rules, procedures and requirements; the Integrity Commission’s (IC’s) public procurement, government contract award, land and asset divestment, and licensing oversight processes; the IC’s oversight of the administration of the Jamaica Constituency Development Fund; the IC’s oversight of the filing of statutory declarations of assets, liabilities and income by public officials; and the IC’s oversight of ‘Whistleblowing’ complaints.
Finally, the Commission’s presentations provided an overview of its mandate to receive, record and investigate allegations or reports of corruption, impropriety and irregularity; a general outline of all corruption offences that there are in Jamaica; an overview of the IC’s investigation and corruption prosecution processes; an overview of Jamaica’s criminal prosecutorial codes and what informs the IC’s decision to prosecute; and an overview of international best practices in anti-corruption and anti-bribery. The latter was intended to provide a general indication of what some jurisdictions are doing to combat corruption and bribery that Jamaica is not doing.
The delivery of the 12 Workshop Modules for the shadow cabinet was led by the Commission’s Corruption Prevention, Stakeholder Engagement and Anti-Corruption Strategy Division.
Division’s director, Ryan Evans, and its manager of anti-corruption policy and strategic engagement, Maurice Barrett, along with other Commission officials, inclusive of representatives of the Commission’s Information and Complaints Division; Investigation Division; and Corruption Prosecution Division, made the presentations.
The Commission will turn its attention next to delivering the same Workshop Modules to the rest of the country’s parliamentarians who have not yet received the training, as well as to other Jamaica public sector officials.
