OPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Andrew Holness says Government’s reappointment of embattled Member of Parliament Richard Azan to the post of junior minister flies in the face of public sentiment and expectations as it relates to good governance.

“It certainly undermines the value of the work of the Contractor General and it reaffirms that the Government is not serious about tackling corruption,” Holness told reporters and editors at the Jamaica Observer Press Club held at the newspaper’s head offices in Kingston yesterday.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, in a brief media statement issued after the swearing-in ceremony, expressed pleasure at Azan’s return.

In congratulating and welcoming the junior minister back to the fold, the prime minister said she was “happy to restore him to the job of continuing the good work for the people of Jamaica”.

Azan was reinstalled as state minister in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen at a ceremony held at King’s House in Kingston yesterday morning.

Azan resigned on September 20, 2013 following public pressure after a report by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) showed that he had approved the illegal construction of wooden shops in the parking lot at the Spalding Market and had facilitated the payment of rent to the contractor who erected the structures in his North West Clarendon constituency.

The OCG had accused Azan of being politically corrupt and referred him and several others to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for various charges to be brought against them.

However the DPP later ruled that there was no basis on which to charge Azan with conspiracy to defraud the Clarendon Parish Council for his involvement in the affair.

Yesterday, Holness said the Opposition was reviewing the Government’s action in reappointing Azan.

At the same time, Opposition spokesman on Infrastructure, Transport and Water Dr Horace Chang said Azan’s reappointment would have serious implications for the image of Jamaica internationally. “This appointment is indecent and flies in the face of the prime minister’s commitment to oversee, a government that is interested in stamping out corruption,” said Chang.

The Opposition, said Chang, will be even more vigilant in monitoring the activities of Azan and the ministry he now oversees to protect the interest of Jamaicans and ensure that there is probity is his actions.

The young professional affiliate arm of the JLP, Generation 2000 (G2K), meanwhile, labelled the reappointment of Azan as a slap in the face of all that is decent and ethical.

“It is a disgraceful move and another clear sign of the contempt that the prime minister and her Cabinet have for the people of Jamaica, the Office of the Contractor General and the concept of good governance,” G2K President Floyd Green said in a statement yesterday.

The organisation noted that although the DPP was unable to gather sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against Azan, Contractor General Dirk Harrison in his report found that the actions of Azan were “tantamount to being politically corrupt as defined by Transparency International”.

The organisation further noted that Azan, in his own words, admitted to breaches of government procedures and guidelines, all of which were established to protect the interest of the people and the taxpayers.