OFFICE OF THE CONTRACTOR GENERAL OF JAMAICA

(Extract from Contractor General’s 2009 Annual Report to the Parliament of

Jamaica – Pages 17 to 19)

A PROPOSED NEW APPROACH IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN JAMAICA

The OCG is committed to the faithful and vigorous discharge of its anti-corruption mandates under the
Contractor General Act. There are also other State entities which are involved in the fight against
corruption in Jamaica but which are entrusted with different, though complementary, statutory or
constitutional mandates to that of the OCG.

However, and without prejudice to the recommendations which I have previously made, it is fast
becoming my considered view that, in so far as the State’s anti-corruption drive is concerned, a combined
and consolidated approach, together with a significantly enhanced and sustained effort, would be the
more cost-effective and efficient route to take over the longer term if, as a country, we are to stand any
chance whatsoever of successfully tackling the seeming endemic corruption which is now literally gripping
Jamaica by its throat.

Consequently, it is my intention, in 2010, to publicly propose the establishment of an all-encompassing

Independent National Anti-Corruption Agency. The proposed new single Anti-Corruption State Agency
would possess the requisite investigatory and prosecutorial resources, and independent powers, to deal
with all corruption offences in a novel, focused, professional, aggressive and significantly more efficient
and cost-effective approach to that which now obtains.

I will propose that the Parliamentary Integrity Commission, the Corruption Prevention Commission and
the Commission of the Contractor General should be merged, and that the resultant agency should be
adequately resourced with the requisite specialist assets.

The suggested Agency should be comprehensively staffed to include a highly trained cadre of criminal
investigators and special ops team members (who will bear arms and have special police powers of arrest
as is the case with the Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau), specialist attorneys, criminal
prosecutors, forensic auditors, accountants, IT professionals, Government contract and licence inspectors
and investigators, data analysts, researchers and a full complement of ‘back-office’ administrative and
other support staff. Their job, collectively, would be to investigate and to prosecute corruption related
offences, as well as to generally perform all of the other statutory functions which are presently required
to be discharged by the three (3) named Commissions.

Additionally, it will also be proposed that consideration should be given to the establishment of a special
‘Corruption Court’, or that the adjudication of corruption offences be given special and/or preferential
treatment within the present Court system.

It is perceived that the proposed streamlined and consolidated effort would, among other things, eliminate
the overlaps and duplicity of resources which are now a feature of the present framework – an institutional
framework which, although it looks good on paper, has proven to be inadequate, ineffective, under-
resourced and non-responsive in combating the increasing levels of corruption which have permeated
Jamaica’s Public and Private Sectors.

But what are some of the other reasons which literally compel us to revamp the system which currently
obtains for fighting corruption in Jamaica?

There is no one who could reasonably contend that Jamaica’s primary law enforcement and criminal
investigative agency, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), and its sole prosecutorial agency, the Office
of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), are in any way near possessed with the requisite
resources and technical assets to effectively investigate and prosecute the massive volume of criminal
cases which are currently languishing, particularly those which involve offences against the person.

The enormity of the issue becomes glaringly obvious when one considers that it was recently estimated
that there are some 7,000 unsolved murders which were committed just during the past 6 years alone,
and an estimated 400,000 cases which are currently awaiting prosecution or adjudication before the
courts. It must also be recalled that a record 1,600 murders were committed in Jamaica in 2009.

The experience of the OCG, with respect to the criminal referrals which it has formally conveyed to the
ODPP, is another relevant and important point of reference in the debate. The facts will show that after
substantial resources, time, intellectual capital and professional effort are invested by the OCG in the
conduct of intensive OCG Statutory Investigations, the matters, once formally referred, appear to be
either placed in abeyance or, after the passage of several months, are passed on, by the ODPP to the
JCF, for the proverbial ‘further criminal investigations’, following which they then join the long list of
thousands of other ‘waiting’ matters.

If the JCF, the ODPP and the Courts system are so overwhelmed, over-worked, under-equipped and/or
under-resourced to satisfactorily deal with the above-referenced deluge of serious crimes, as well as the
criminal referrals which emanate from critical State Anti-Corruption Agencies such as the OCG, then the
question must be posed as to how likely is it that they can or will be effectively placed in a position, any
time soon, to begin to even scratch the surface of the vast and yet to be explored criminal sceptre of
corruption which, for years, has been having an unfettered field day in Jamaica and which, for the
foreseeable future, will obviously continue to do so, unless something dramatically different is done?

We must also be candid and concede that while much is often heard about the filing of charges against
members of the police force for corruption offences, surprisingly very little is heard about the arrest and/or
prosecution, on corruption charges, of the so called ‘white-collar criminal’. These would include, for
example, persons such as members of the privileged classes of society, politicians, public officials and
business-persons who are suspected of involvement in criminal conduct of a commercial and non-violent
nature.

Certainly, no one could credibly defend the proposition that police officers are the primary or only
category of persons in our society who are involved in such practices. But, curiously, the main focus of
the fight against corruption in Jamaica, so far, seems to be directed towards members of the police force.

When last, for example, or how often, has anyone heard of a public official being investigated, charged,
arrested or prosecuted for the commission of the corruption offence of Illicit Enrichment which is specified
under Section 14 (5) of the Corruption Prevention Act?

Section 14 (5) of the Act provides that “Where there is a significant increase in the assets of a public
servant which cannot be reasonably explained, having regard to his lawful earnings, the significant

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increase shall be deemed to be an illicit enrichment and that public servant shall be deemed to have
committed an act of corruption”.

The Act further provides that where a public servant owns assets that are disproportionate to his lawful
earnings and, upon being requested by the Corruption Prevention Commission or any other person who
is duly authorized to investigate an allegation of corruption against him, to provide an explanation as to
how he came by such assets, he either fails to provide an explanation, or gives an explanation which is
not considered to be satisfactory, he shall be liable to be prosecuted for the offence of Illicit Enrichment.

The foregoing provisions of the Corruption Prevention Act have placed what is obviously an extremely
powerful weapon in the hands of the Corruption Prevention Commission, the JCF and the ODPP to
effectively fight corruption in the Public Sector by going after public servants who are suspected of
complicity in corrupt activities. But is this weapon – which is universally prescribed and provided for in at
least two (2) International Treaties to which Jamaica is a signatory – being utilized by the relevant
authorities in the manner that it was intended to?

In like form, the OCG also believes that it is timely to raise the question as to why is it that corruption
offences, such as that which is specified under Section 14 (1) (b) of the Corruption Act, are not being
more widely employed by the investigative and prosecutorial authorities to aggressively tackle corruption
right across the board in the Public Sector.

Section 14 (1) (b) of the Corruption Prevention Act provides, in overly simple terms, that a public servant
commits an act of corruption “if, in the performance of his public functions, he does any act or omits to do
any act for the purpose of obtaining any illicit benefit for himself or (for) any other person”.

I would respectfully submit that it is precisely because of the foregoing considerations, amongst others,
that a novel, unprecedented and ‘thinking out of the box’ approach will be required if we are to stand even
a ghost of a chance of successfully combating corruption in Jamaica, over the longer term, in the
forthright and aggressive manner which the situation now clearly demands.

As a part of the new dispensation, I will also propose that significantly tougher criminal sanctions,
inclusive of mandatory custodial and economic-based penalties, should be imposed in respect of all
corruption and related offences. The hammer must be forcefully brought down.

Included among the offences which should attract stiffer sanctions are offences under the Contractor
General Act, as well as offences which involve a breach of some of the rules which are related to the
award of Government contracts, the issue of Government licences, and the Statutory Declarations which
are required to be filed each year by Public Officers and Parliamentarians in respect of their income,
assets and liabilities.

The bottom line in all of this is that whatever the new approach is determined to be, it must be one which
brings to bear an appropriately structured and adequately resourced anti-corruption institutional
framework. We must also be dead certain that the new dispensation will be effective in getting the job
done by ensuring that the anti-corruption laws which are on the country’s Statute books will be
comprehensively enforced.

If at the end of the day any of the foregoing deliverables cannot be assured, then we would have
squandered valuable time and resources in our attempts at revamping or tweaking the present system.

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That said, we must now act strategically and decisively, and with dispatch, so that a clear and
unmistakable signal is sent to the corrupt amongst us who, by their voracious and seeming unimpeded
criminal conduct, are presently obstructing an entire nation from attaining its full socio-economic potential.

Should we fail to so act, then we must not be heard to complain about the rapidly deepening and
pervasive feature of the Jamaican sociological order that corruption has already become. We must also
accept that unless we purposefully act, we would have rendered futile, whimsical and fanciful any
prospect that we might have otherwise had for extracting Jamaica out of the gaping socio-economic
abyss that it is now in.