THE Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC), Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) and the Casino Gaming Commission (CGC) have taken action to strengthen the culture of integrity, combat corruption, and firmly entrench the standards of good governance in their organisations.

The entities, in a release yesterday, said staff of the entities which are responsible for regulating gambling in Jamaica, have recently completed training delivered by the Integrity Commission through its newly operationalised Corruption Prevention, Stakeholder Engagement and Anti-Corruption Strategy Division Unit which is mandated by Section 6 of the Integrity Commission Act of 2017 to, inter alia, educate the public on matters relating to acts of corruption.

Ryan Evans, director of the Corruption Prevention, Stakeholder Engagement and Anti-Corruption Strategy Division of the Integrity Commission, said the gaming commissions are the first public sector bodies to participate in its anti-corruption and good governance Sensitisation workshops since the division became operationalised in June.

Evans revealed that modules covered in the workshop include: the problem of corruption from a global and local perspective, the principles of good governance, an examination of elements of the Government of Jamaica corporate governance framework and the Public Bodies Management & Accountability Act, examination of the issues surrounding the guidance on identification, avoidance and management of conflicts of interest, and the role, responsibilities and duties of public officers.

“Among the key messages of the workshops are the elaboration of the seven principles of public life, namely, integrity, selflessness, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership,” said Evans. “It is important that the team members understand the principles of public life accountability, and how as public servants we should be accountable, open, transparent, and honest [and] embody these principles of leadership in how we execute our tasks and responsibilities.”

Vitus Evans, executive director, BGLC, said that for an organisation like the BGLC, which regulates gambling in Jamaica, “it is of paramount importance that our staff are fully aware and are trained on the integrity issues”.

He emphasised the greater importance of integrity over competence in the performance of duties by the commissions’ team members.

“By the very nature of this industry, we know that our staff will be exposed to certain offers and there certainly will be a thin line between what may be considered as a conflict of interest as opposed to actually seen to be offending a client who may feel that they are making a genuine offer to reward a member of staff for their good work,” the BGLC boss explained.

For his part, Richard Longmore, general manager, JRC, said the response from his staff has been “tremendous” in terms of what they have learnt so far.

He revealed that key feedback from the team was that that they were not “fully aware” of some of the things that may be deemed as being corruption.

“Previously we might have overlooked what might have appeared to be some minor things, however, now through this training staff are fully aware and know their responsibilities as public servants,” Longmore declared.

The BGLC regulates the betting, gaming and lottery sectors of Jamaica’s gambling industry. The JRC regulates horse racing, while the CGC is charged with regulatory oversight for the casino gambling sector of the industry.