JLP accuses PNP of about-turn on Auditor General as IC commissioner

 

The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is chiding the People's National Party (PNP) for its about-turn on the inclusion of the Auditor General as a member of the Integrity Commission (IC) after it objected to the move in 2019.

 

At the time, then PNP President Dr. Peter Phillips said placing independent bodies, such as the Auditor General on the Integrity Commission, had become an issue, especially where they had a role to play in the crafting of reports.

 

The issue has again become a talking point after government members of the Joint Select Committee reviewing the Integrity Commission Act, on Wednesday voted to remove the Auditor General from the anti-corruption body to restore independence to the office.

 

Opposition members of the committee disagreed with the decision.

 

This was followed Thursday by a strongly worded statement from Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who said the attempt to remove the Auditor General as a commissioner of the IC represented "yet another calculated step in a broader pattern of deliberate, strategic and dangerous assaults by the administration on Jamaica's anti-corruption architecture".

 

At least two civil society groups have questioned the motive of the government. 

 

Speaking on behalf of the JLP, Senator Marlon Morgan said the PNP's change of position confirms the propensity of the party to flip-flop and exhibit unprincipled, dishonest and opportunistic tendencies on national issues. 

 

"The PNP's then objection to the Auditor General being on the Integrity Commission spawned headlines across media, one of which read 'Opposition calls for review of Integrity Commission's composition' and that item of news noted objections by the PNP to the inclusion of the Auditor General as a commissioner of the Integrity Commission. 

 

"The Jamaican people can be assured that when the PNP here in 2025 is pretending to raise alarm and objecting to a majority vote by the Joint Select Committee on the Integrity Commission - which quite frankly, that vote is consistent with what it had been lobbying for - this matter is not for the PNP about principle, it is about political expediency," he asserted. 

 

The Joint Select Committee is to submit a final report to Parliament with its recommendations for amendments to the IC Act.