Information Minister, Dr Dana Morris Dixon, says the government has indicated that the correct process to review the Integrity Commission Act is through Parliament's Joint Select Committee, which is currently engaged in that process.
Morris Dixon was responding to questions at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing relative to the decision by Prime Minister Andrew Holness to apply for a judicial review of the Integrity Commission’s (IC) investigation report into his statutory and financial affairs.
Holness wants the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional, a law used by the IC to probe public officials for illicit enrichment. If he is successful, it would have implications for at least seven other parliamentarians who are similarly under probe for illegal gains.
Following those developments, concerns are being raised publicly about the potential weakening of the commission through the current review of the IC Act.
Morris Dixon suggested that persons should allow for the review of the Joint Select Committee to be completed, as it through those meetings that the recommendations will be made relative to any proposed changes to the IC Act.
She pointed out that several persons have sat before the committee and voiced their opinions.
"In many instances, there are diverging opinions and that's why we have a Joint Select Committee... so that whenever we have legislation that is important to the people of Jamaica, we open it up for people to come and say, 'This is what my view is'," Morris Dixon said.
"So, I would like us to let that process play out, and in terms of the government, we believe that that is the right process through which we should review that legislation, and we will get some recommendations from it," she added.
The minister assured her that when the recommendations are presented, the government will discuss them.
"But right now, there is no articulated position of the government outside the Joint Select Committee that is reviewing the legislation, and we are hearing the views of the public in relation to it," she stated.
A timeline for the completion of the review of the IC Act has not been given.
