PORTLAND, Jamaica— Member of Parliament for West Portland Daryl Vaz has described as a victory the Integrity Commission’s director of corruption prosecution’s decision to not charge Prime Minister Andrew Holness in relation to a conflict of interest accusation levelled at him.

Holness was cited for over two contracts awarded to a company owned by a friend of his 14 years ago when he was education minister.

Vaz, who was addressing persons at Windsor Castle in Portland on Thursday evening, questioned why it took so long to publish the ruling from the Director of Corruption Prosecutions since it was made on January 12 this year.

Vaz stated that the ruling should have been published along with the referral from the Director of Investigations.

“This is a big victory, but it doesn’t stop there because the damage is done. I hope that this matter will now be reviewed in full as how we go about Members of Parliament’s involvement in government execution of government contracts,” Vaz said.

“The question that I ask is, if it is that this ruling was made one month ago why would the report come without the ruling? Damage has been done to not only the person involved but the country. Only for a matter of less than 24 hours the ruling became available that was made more than a month ago. Why not file the report with the ruling so that people could see and assess the findings as against the ruling,” the MP questioned.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness was implicated in a report by the Integrity Commission in a potential conflict of interest regarding the award of Government contracts during the period 2006-2009.

READ: Holness cited for possible conflict of interest, breaches of Corruption Act

However, Holness strongly rejected the allegations stating: “It has been the longstanding practice that Members of Parliament are asked to recommend local contractors to undertake works in their constituencies as a practical matter.”

READ: Holness strongly rejects conflict of interest allegation by Integrity Commission

Vaz agreed with this sentiment, stating that this practice of MPs making recommendations for contracts has been in place since former Prime Minister PJ Patterson’s administration.

“Members of Parliament complained that work was taking place in their constituency with government contracts without their knowledge,” Vaz explained.

This, he said brought about the MP’s recommendation and the procurement procedure.

“Once the work is going to start, the member of parliament must be brought in and be involved so that he can make representation and recommendations. From 2007, I have made hundreds of recommendations as it relates to projects but, that’s where it stops. I have no say as a member of parliament in the procurement process. Of the hundreds of recommendations, I may have a success rate of 10 or 20 or 40 per cent and I respect that position,” Vaz disclosed.

He went on to demand that a solution be implemented to avoid another situation like this.

“The matter needs to be addressed fundamentally once and for all. I cannot have state agencies writing me for recommendations and in responding to those recommendations I am in breach of the Integrity Commission’s laws. There is a distinct disconnect in that and no one wants to deal with that. I will say without fear of contradiction that that issue has to be resolved” he said.

Everard Owen