THE seemingly irreconcilable differences between former Contractor General Dirk Harrison and the commissioners of the Integrity Commission have ended in what was long seen by many as an inevitable divorce.

Confirmation came yesterday that Harrison indicated his decision to retire effective September 1, in a letter to Governor General Sir Patrick Allen at the start of this month.

This is six months before his 2013 appointment as contractor general for seven years was due to end, and just over one year after he was named among three people to act as heads of divisions within the Integrity Commission.

Harrison was named to head the commission’s Corruption Prosecution Division, with former secretary-manager of the Integrity Commission Joy Powell to act as head of the Information and Complaints Division, and former secretary-manager of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption David Grey to act as head of the Investigations Division.

But a disagreement over his pension arrangements meant that Harrison never officially took up the post, and in recent months there have been public displays of differences in the approach to the anti-corruption fight between Harrison and the commissioners.

Still, news of Harrison’s decision to walk away from the Integrity Commission has come as a body blow to some of the island’s leading anti-corruption campaigners who yesterday argued that this was bad for Jamaica.

“Jamaica will be poorer for his leaving. It is unfortunate that we are losing the person who seems to be the last of our publicly accountable watchdogs, except for the auditor general who continues to function,” declared civil society advocate Carol Narcisse, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

“If you put it in the context of the less than stellar performance of the Integrity Commission up to this point, and the concerns that we have about the legislation which governs it, this has pushed us back rather than carried us forward in terms of public accountability,” added Narcisse.

She argued that when there was an Office of the Contractor General that believed it was accountable to the public in terms of what it was doing and what its concerns were, plus a transparent Office of the Auditor General, Jamaica was in a better position than with “the single anti-corruption agency, which is almost silenced by the legislation that governs it”.

Professor Trevor Munroe, head of the anti-corruption group National Integrity Action, also expressed regret at Harrison’s decision to walk away.

“Mr Harrison has been an outstanding public servant. His time as contractor general reflected a level of independence, professionalism and non-partisanship in the pursuit of his responsibilities,” said Munroe.

“Obviously, there has been a troubled relationship between him and the commissioners, and that is a matter on which I cannot speak, not being privy to issues. What I can say is that this latest development highlights the importance of the appointment of the oversight committee of Parliament…which would have the responsibility of reviewing the law governing the Integrity Commission as a matter of urgency,” added Munroe.

He argued that the parliamentary committee urgently needs to look at the laws governing the transparency of the Integrity Commission.

“[T]he public now needs to know where is the report on Petrojam, which the Integrity Commission said it had completed and sent to the director of prosecutions (Harrison).

“That report was tabled on July 9, 2019, and we are now at the end of August and the public needs to know what is happening to the Petrojam report, and we need to know what was stymieing the operations of Mr Harrison as the director of public prosecutions,” added Munroe, as he noted that Harrison’s division had not initiated any prosecutions or criminal proceedings in the year that the commission has so far operated.

Harrison was appointed acting head of the Corruption Prosecution Division after the birth of the Integrity Commission.

For months there were whispers that all was not well with Harrison and the commissioners as they haggled over his pension entitlements.

The whispers became louder in April when the commissioners distanced themselves from Harrison’s report about the sale by the Urban Development Corporation of the prime beachfront properties in Ocho Rios, St Ann, which housed the Rooms on the Beach Hotel, to Puerto Caribe Properties Limited, the operators of Moon Palace Jamaica.

But the commissioners denied that there was a rift despite the seismic impact of them not endorsing a report authored by the former Office of the Contractor General, which they had tabled in Parliament.

“The Commission has no quarrel with Mr Harrison. There has been difference of opinions specific to the Rooms report from the commission’s view point, but this does not amount to a rift, or as has been said, bad blood between the commission and himself,” the commission’s chairman, retired Justice Karl Harrison told journalists.

Weeks later, Harrison fired a salvo of his own as he launched an attack on the commission and hinted that the commissioners had not been fully transparent with their comments about the relationship.

He also charged that there was a lack of performance by the commission.

“The Integrity Commission, which I am a part of, has not prosecuted a single person in 15 months. It is woefully unacceptable that thousands of matters which remain in the system are not being prosecuted,” declared Harrison.