Lobby group People’s Anti-Corruption Movement (PAM) says it has written to Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Opposition leader Mark Golding seeking their support for a People’s Commission of Enquiry into State corruption.

Convenor of PAM, Lloyd D’Aguilar, says the enquiry should lead to a forensic audit of the public debt.

In justifying such an enquiry, D’Aguilar argued that Jamaica is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

By way of corruption, Jamaica slipped one place on the 2021 Transparency International corruption ranking, falling to 70th in 2021 from 69th out of 180 countries in 2020.

However, its corruption perception index (CPI) remained at 44, where 0 is considered highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Jamaica also remained the fifth most corrupt country in the Caribbean behind Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.

D’Aguilar charged that “Millions of dollars are corruptly pocketed each year by corrupt politicians and public sector officials. Consequently, important social services like health, education, infrastructure, sanitation, are grossly underfunded and deficient”.

Yet, he is not too optimistic that such a commission of enquiry will be facilitated.

“We must report, not surprisingly, that not one of these elected officials has responded…,” D’Aguilar said.

“They show no concern about the consequences suffered by poor Jamaicans as a result of corruption,” he added.

“As we approach 60 years of Independence on August 6, we the people must take decisive steps to expose the entrenched methods of corruption and try to put an end to it in order to better serve the needs of the people,” he continued.

D’Aguilar wants the prime minister to:

(1) introduce legislation in Parliament announcing the convening of a Commission of Enquiry into State Corruption;

(2) earmark the necessary funds to hold this enquiry;

(3) ensure the cooperation of all sectors of the State and government machinery to provide documentation or to testify if so called upon by the commission.

According to D’Aguilar, a forensic audit is the next step where the public debt is concerned as “We cannot afford to pay back corrupt debt”.

“We the people must send a strong message to the government and to our elected representatives that corruption must end now,” he said.