Statements by parliamentarians putting Integrity Commission staff at risk – Panton

Chairman of the Integrity Commission (IC), Seymour Panton, has warned that statements being made against the IC and its commissioners, including demands being made on the commission, have fueled “a sort of mood among sycophants”.

“We should not really have a situation where we are being pilloried for doing what the legislation allows,” Panton said Tuesday as he and three other commissioners of the IC appeared before the Parliament’s Integrity Commission Oversight Committee (ICOC).

“In the type of society in which we live, we need to understand that persons should be very careful of what they say,” Panton remarked. He told the oversight committee that a Member of Parliament has sent out a document with the photographs of four commissioners “saying that we are bringing down the Government”.

That apparently happened after the IC’s damning investigation report on its illicit enrichment probe of Prime Minister Andrew Holness was tabled in the Parliament on September 17. The IC is yet to certify the prime minister’s statutory declarations for 2021 and 2022.

READ: Integrity Commission wants FID, TAJ to probe aspects of PM’s financial affairs

Panton is concerned about the safety of the commission’s employees.

“In this climate, for a member of parliament to be doing that is reprehensible and I’ve not heard any parliamentarian condemn it. And there are parliamentarians sending out Whatapp notes of all sorts of reprehensible things and I hope that somebody will take the leadership to correct them,” said the IC chair.

Panton said the commissioners are “committed to doing what the legislation permits us to do. And it’s not fair for the employees to be set in a stage where they can be set upon so I trust that folks will realise that the reports that we send (to Parliament) from the Integrity Commission, they are reports of facts”.