Johnson Smith confident she will be absolved in lawsuit
Senator Kamina Johnson Smith is confident that she will be vindicated in a lawsuit filed against her and the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Ministry, which alleges that a US$99,000 gift towards her failed 2022 Commonwealth secretary general bid was mishandled.
The senator, in a social media post last Thursday, called the allegations “baseless, untrue and defamatory” while reminding her followers that defamation, even on social media, can result in suits.
Johnson Smith’s defense team in a release on Monday stated that the senator “is committed to defending herself against the allegations purportedly made in the lawsuit and is confident that the legal process will reveal the truth of the matter and will ultimately vindicate her.”
In September 2022, the Government named GraceKennedy Limited, the Musson Group and Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica head Keith Duncan as corporate Jamaica members that helped to finance the US$99,000 contract awarded to Finn Partners to provide international communication services for Jamaica’s candidature for the Commonwealth secretary general post.
READ: Gov’t names three contributors to Johnson Smith’s campaign
The matter, which has garnered much media attention, Jamaican-American Wilfred Rattigan, in a claim filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of himself and Jamaicans in the Diaspora, charged that Johnson Smith and the Foreign Affairs Ministry failed to comply with the statutory and administrative regulations under the Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAA) with respect to a US$99,000 donation/gift by “corporate Jamaica”.
Rattigan, in the claim, is charging that the finance ministry, which is also named in the suit, failed to take appropriate action to compel Johnson Smith and the ministry to comply with the applicable statutory and administrative regulations.
He further contends that Johnson Smith “failed to file a disclosure with the Integrity Commission regarding the donation she received that did not fall within the filing exceptions”.
Rattigan is charging that as a beneficiary of a US$99,000 gift/donation from corporate Jamaica, Johnson Smith “should have declared this sum to the Tax Administration of Jamaica and paid appropriate taxes thereon”.
