KINGSTON, Jamaica – Following the amendment of the Constitution to increase the retirement age for the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the auditor general (AuG), Justice Minister Delroy Chuck on Wednesday said the comments made by the Opposition in Parliament questioning the integrity of the DPP’s office are “unfair and unbecoming”.

Chuck said that the incumbent Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has “never shown in any of her rulings that she has been partisan, political, influenced by any outside forces and to hear these imputations against her office, is quite unfortunate.”

“I’m very disappointed that the Opposition and others should impute any motive why this amendment was done so quickly. It was on the cards from 2016/2017. And, regrettably, for the leader of the Opposition in Parliament to impute that there are six Parliamentarians who are being questioned from reports of the Integrity Commission (IC) and the Director of Public Prosecution can overrule but the Director of Corruption Proceedings in the IC can do is so unfair and unbecoming,” Chuck said.

Chuck noted that the DPP, during her tenure, has exercised professionalism, integrity and commitment to her work.

“I think the Leader of the Opposition, by making and speculating by his comments, has shown his leadership to be questionable and his judgement to be extremely poor. And I hope he too should stop that speculation as to why this amendment is being done…,” Chuck added.

He was addressing the Post Cabinet Press Briefing at the Banquet Hall, Jamaica House on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, despite objections from Opposition Members of Parliament, the constitution was amended by legislators to increase the retirement age of the DPP and the AuG.

Following a debate during the sitting of the House of Representatives, which saw Opposition members speaking against the proposed adjustments in the Constitution (Amendment of Sections 96[1] and 121[1]) Act, 2023, the legislation was approved via a divide of which 37 members voted “yes” and eight said “no”.

READ: DPP can now serve up to age 70

Information Minister Robert Nesta Morgan then questioned the Opposition’s motive to move against the DPP and not the AuG.

“To bring the auditor general and the Director of Public Prosecution to the same level is actually good policy and the right thing to do. So, this is why we’re very surprised by the strong objection to the DPP. In all the conversations, we haven’t heard any objections from the Opposition about the auditor general which raises very serious concerns from us, especially based on statements by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday…We find it very troubling but we are very confident that the policy that was established many years ago is good policy and we’re very happy to execute it,” he noted, adding that the Bill was tabled in 2017 and spanned administrations as far back as Bruce Golding.