MONTEGO BAY, St James — Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced that all members of the Cabinet will now be exposed to training in good governance practices as a measure to safeguard against corruption.

“I believe that I will have to put through my Cabinet, and make it a standing practice that all members of Cabinet are exposed to good governance training and practices. So that there is no misunderstanding of the roles; so that they are thoroughly seized of what we need to do to ensure that we are able to fulfil the very mandate that we have set,” Holness said at yesterday’s National Housing Trust (NHT) ground-breaking ceremony for the Windsor housing scheme in Trelawny.

The prime minister noted that corruption has resulted in the downfall of many regimes across the globe.

“This business of good governance and anti-corruption is a serious matter. It is a wave sweeping across the world and it is a wave that has swept out governments. I do not intend it to affect our Government,” Holness said.

“Our Government must be strong, our Government must stand visibly and demonstrably in support of transparency, of good governance, with a firm stance against corruption,” he insisted.

The Holness-led Administration has come under fire recently, with the Opposition People’s National Party demanding that Dr Andrew Wheatley be relieved of all his ministerial duties, given that he had portfolio responsibility for the scandal-hit State-oil refinery Petrojam.

Yesterday, Holness said he had made sure to have a discussion with the executive about the effectiveness of ministerial oversight.

“And we will ensure and redouble our efforts to ensure that all public agencies under our charge, that they are working efficiently and effectively towards the public good,” he said.

The prime minister argued that the parliamentary process is important “and there is an Opposition that keeps the Government alert [and] brings things to the public attention”.

However, he said that the public has to also develop a sense of discernment, and called for patience with “those independent investigative bodies now that are doing their jobs”.

“Not everything that is brought to the public’s attention is true,” the prime minister said. “In today’s world of instant information, instant disclosure of material, the public has developed this acute sense of sifting through, and governments can help to do that by ensuring that there are processes that can filter and put in the public domain the facts,” Holness declared.

“So there is one thing to come with the haystack of allegations; we need the independent authorities to find the needles, and so we have to just be patient because outside of that, then people with nefarious intent could always spread fake news and false information in such volumes that it overwhelms you to believe things that are not true and shape public opinion.

“That, of course, is what bigger countries than us are struggling with. That’s part of the debate in the United States with fake news, and people say we need to ensure that fake news does not affect voter outcome. So in our little Jamaica we can’t dismiss that or ignore that. We have to depend on a process to come up with the truth,” Holness insisted.

The NHT is developing 196 serviced lots at Windsor. Of that number, 64 are to be allocated to SCJ Holdings Limited by way of a land swap. The other 132 will be sold through NHT.