G2K raps PNP councillors for saying raids political
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Generation 2000 (G2K), the young professional affiliate of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), today knocked comments made by Mayor of Kingston, Angela Brown Burke.
The mayor yesterday charged, on behalf of the National Caucus of PNP Councillors, that investigations into contracts awarded by the Manchester, Clarendon and St Catherine parish councils, as well the Portmore Municipal Council are political.
In a media release Thursday, G2K described the comments as inappropriate and a direct slap in the face.
“Senator Brown Burke’s move to accuse Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) of pursuing a political agenda is despicable and disrespectful of the hard-working officers of MOCA and the Constabulary Force,” G2K said.
They added that the statement from the PNP Caucus was a ‘direct slap in the face’ of the hard-working police officers and critical international partners who have worked in tandem with MOCA to combat corruption.
G2K president, Senator Matthew Samuda, argued that the statement by the PNP councillors suggest that they are supportive of the institutionalised corruption, which he alleges is plaguing some local government authorities.
The group has called on Brown Burke to apologise to the law enforcement personnel and has encouraged all 14 parish councils, including the 13 controlled by the PNP, to cooperate with the police.
Since the charge of MOCA raids being influenced by politics was made, Deputy Director General of MOCA, Assistant Commissioner of Police Selvin Hay, has said that the raids being carried out at select parish councils is not politically motivated but the result of “painstaking investigations”.