KINGSTON, Jamaica – Opposition leader Dr Peter Phillips has criticised the position taken by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that corruption is a societal problem.

Dr Phillips told supporters at Sunday’s party meeting in East Central St Catherine to introduce new candidate/caretaker Dr Winston De La Haye, that corruption was a part of the governance structure of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

“The prime minister who was bawling say ministers shouldn’t come into the House of Parliament because of corruption, now him say that corruption is a part of our culture; it’s a societal problem. Nonsense! It is a part of the governance structure of the JLP government,” Dr Phillips said.

Dr Phillips also asked about the “job description” for ministers, which the JLP had promised prior to the 2016 general election.

“Certainly, what we are seeing is the worst example of governance ever witnessed by the people of this country,” he stated.

Speaking at a JLP Area Council Three meeting in Palmer’s Cross, Clarendon on January 19, Holness had criticised Dr Phillips’ suggestion that corruption is a political issue in Jamaica, noting that corruption also emerges when the PNP is in power.

According to the prime minister, a better approach by the PNP would have been to look at the issue of corruption as a social problem, and how the country can get Jamaicans to appreciate and understand it from that perspective, rather than looking at it merely as a political problem or a partisan problem.

“Because, there are some entrenched social attitudes towards corruption, and we within our party, we have to start to talk about those social attitudes and see how we can break them internally,” Holness argued.