Senate President chides IC for not publishing his anti-corruption day message

By Kimone Witter    

 

Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson is taking issue with a decision by the Integrity Commission not to publish his message for International Anti-Corruption Day, which was observed on December 9, in its newspaper supplement.

 

Senator Tavares-Finson disclosed in the Upper House on Friday morning that he received an email on behalf of the Commission indicating that his comments were libelous.

 

He said he felt as if he was being gagged.

 

Senator Tavares-Finson read his message at Friday's sitting in which he criticised the Integrity Commission and said it had lost credibility among the public. 

 

"The slow rate of addressing matters which come before the Commission, anti-government comments by the Commission's executive director, inflammatory and puerile remarks by the Integrity Commission's chairman, and the police revelation that a senior director of the Commission, who reportedly, habitually transported wads of cash, refused to cooperate with the criminal investigations where he was allegedly robbed, have dealt a near mortal blow to the credibility of the Commission," he read. 

 

"It would be a significant boost to the perceived fairness and the anti-corruption fight in Jamaica should the current composition of the Integrity Commission be reconstructed," he continued, telling the Senate "there is nothing libelous about that". 

 

The Senate President said the response of the Integrity Commission was unfortunate. 

 

"Sometimes when you criticise the management of individuals who are responsible for the day-to-day running of an institution, they take the criticism of the individual as criticism of the institution. And I am not. It is a flaw that people have because it's an ego thing, because when I criticise the management of any person, I am not criticising the institution, I am trying to save the institution from committing institutional suicide," he contended.