KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC—Justice Althea Jarrett Friday granted Prime Minister Andrew Holness permission to challenge the Integrity Commission’s (IC) investigative report into his financial affairs.
Honess has deemed the report “unlawful” and “unfair.” Judicial review allows the court to scrutinize the processes used by a public authority to make decisions. However, it does not examine the merits of the decisions.
Prime Minister Holness applied to the Supreme Court on September 30 for 21 orders or declarations, including the judicial review. Justice Jarrett delivered her ruling after hearing submissions from both parties last month.
Holness was also granted leave to challenge the IC’s referral of his statutory declarations to the Financial Investigation Division (FID).
In its 171-page report, the IC’s director of investigation, Kevon Stephenson, said he could not conclude on illicit enrichment. He highlighted unexplained financial discrepancies in Holness’ 2021 income filings and raised questions about tax compliance and transactions of over J$470 million (One Jamaica dollar = 0.008 cents) involving connected companies.
The commission, which said it could not certify the income declaration, referred the matter to the FID, citing Holness’ failure to provide expense details.
However, Holness has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the report is flawed and unfairly suggests unethical and criminal conduct by him and affiliated companies.
He wants the Supreme Court to terminate all investigations into his financial affairs, invalidate the report, strike down specific provisions of the Integrity Commission Act, and declare sections of the Corruption Prevention Act used to probe illicit enrichment as “unconstitutional.”
Holness, his company, Imperium Investments Holdings Limited, and two other connected entities – Positive Media Solutions Limited and Positive Jamaica Foundation – are seeking judicial review.
Meanwhile, Justice Leighton Morris will rule on December 13 whether the IC’s case against the former Speaker of Parliament, Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, will proceed or be thrown out.
The decision, initially set to be handed down in the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Court on Thursday morning, was pushed back after the judge indicated that he needed more time because of an incident on Thursday.
Proceedings at the court were halted Thursday due to a bomb threat.
During the October 11 hearing, King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie submitted that the proceedings should be halted based on abuse of process. He argued that the eight charges against Mrs. Dalrymple-Philibert were misplaced because the wrong procedure was followed to arrive at them.
The Integrity Commission’s Investigation Report into the Statutory Declarations filed by Mrs. Dalrymple-Philibert alleges that she failed to disclose a Mercedes-Benz GLA 250 motor vehicle, of which she was the legal owner.
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