THE Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) made fresh calls on Thursday morning for Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness to resign, arguing that him being embroiled in an investigation for alleged illicit enrichment is a serious blot on the image of the country both locally and internationally.

Leader of the Opposition and president of the PNP, Mark Golding, led the calls as he addressed a press conference held at PNP headquarters in St Andrew to discuss the findings of the Integrity Commission’s (IC) investigative report on the financial affairs of the prime minister.

The investigation report, an addendum, the commission’s ruling, and a special report were all tabled Tuesday in the House of Representatives. It marks the culmination of a two-year investigation during which the prime minister’s statutory declarations remained uncertified.

The investigation sought to ascertain whether Holness owns assets disproportionate to his lawful earnings, and if he had, in fact, made false statements in his statutory declarations by way of omissions, contrary to law.

“Jamaica has a prime minister who remains under investigation for the serious corruption offence of illicit enrichment, and whose annual statutory declarations for 2021 onwards still cannot be certified by the country’s Integrity Commission as required by law. It is untenable for our prime minister not to be in good standing with the country’s Integrity Commission. We cannot go on like this. The prime minister must step aside now or call fresh elections so that the people have the chance to elect a new Government that can take our country out of this mess,” he said.

Golding further argued that Holness has not been cleared of illicit enrichment allegations, as the ruling of the director of corruption prosecution is only on one aspect that had to do with some bank accounts that the prime minister’s parents had on which he had been added as a signatory.

“She said that there wasn’t a basis for saying that he knowingly failed to include them in his declaration. In order to be culpable for that, he would have to show that he deliberately did that. But that’s really a relatively minor part of what this report is about. The major aspect of this is to do with the complex and seemingly irregular transactions involving the prime minister and his companies. And that is what needs to be properly and fulsomely investigated. And the Integrity Commission has indicated that they have taken it as far as they can go and they’re recommending that it be referred to the Financial Investigations Division (FID) to be completed, and we support that call,” he said.

In its report, the commission concluded that it had no evidence to conclude illicit enrichment by Holness but was still short of information to certify his statutory declarations and suggested that financial transactions involving three companies linked to the prime minister should be subject to further investigations by the FID, Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ), and the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

Pointing out that the prime minister has known since 2023 that he was under investigation for illicit enrichment, which is a corruption offence under the Corruption Prevention Act, Golding further argued that Holness has failed in his solemn duty to the Jamaican people to ensure that the laws of Jamaica are maintained and that he acts in keeping with the standards of principled behaviour required of his very high office.

“Yes, Mr Holness is [allegedly] one of the illicit six, now the illicit eight, and he has known this for well over a year. Yet Mr Holness misled the country by withholding the truth about this investigation in statements that he made both in and outside Parliament over this period, even telling Jamaica that he had asked far and wide and none of his MPs [Members of Parliament] were under investigation for illicit enrichment,” said Golding.

He further argued that the unprecedented situation is fundamentally incompatible with his continuing to hold office as prime minister, noting that the IC’s report contains several serious findings “which reinforce the need for Mr Holness to go now”.

Key among them, he said, was the purchase of an investment for US$94,000 “using, as part of the money that was put up to buy this investment, US$32,000 from a registered charity, of which Mr Holness is a director, called a Positive Jamaica Foundation, commingled with resources from his personal company, Imperium, including US$30,000 from an account that he had with Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL). Yes, SSL. Mr Holness reported this investment for several years as 100 per cent belonging to his company Imperium, when the charity’s money had been used to acquire it as well as his own. Indeed, a third of the money came from the charity. One can only wonder how local and international donors to that charity feel about its resources being used.”

According to the IC report, in regard to the purchase of a bond by Holness on September 2, 2019 at a cost of US$94,000, the director of investigation (DI) concluded that only US$61,892.98 was funded by the prime minister.

The DI said the remaining amount of US$32,107.02 was taken from funds apparently belonging to a registered charity, Positive Jamaica Foundation, of which the prime minister was, at the material time, a director.

The DI also said that Holness’s indication on July 16, 2024 that the full portion of the bond was erroneously attributed to him by a financial institution “is misleading and unsupported by the evidence”. According to the report, the bond in question was called in 2020, and the principal and interest were paid to Holness.

According to the DI, the proceeds were incorporated into Holness’s assets which he holds in a company named Imperium. The DI said that the funding of the company, Positive Media, in which Imperium (wholly owned by Holness) was a majority shareholder before being replaced by one of his sons in 2022, raises several concerns as to the true nature of this company’s operations.

Golding also pointed to the filing of nil tax returns by Holness’s personal companies, indicating that they had no taxable income or expenses “when the companies did, in fact, have substantial income and expenses is a matter which the Integrity Commission suggests would be a significant violation under Jamaica’s tax laws and should be referred to the commissioner general of Tax Administration Jamaica for action. Indeed, the payments between Mr Holness’s personal companies over the review period exceeded $400 million”.

In the IC report, the DI concluded that the filing of nil income tax returns for the years 2021 and 2022 on the part of Imperium, Positive Media, and another company named Estatebridge, all associated with Holness, in circumstances where those companies reported income and other business activities in their audited financial statements, poses significant tax compliance concerns.

Holness, in a statement to Parliament on Tuesday, insisted that he has complied with all obligations placed on him within the law. He also said that as far as he was aware the company with which he is directly associated is compliant and up to date with its tax filings.

Golding also pointed to the “creation of a situation of conflict of interest” by Mr Holness appointing his business partner and co-investor in his personal real estate company Mr Norman Brown to be chairman of two important public bodies — the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), both of which fall under Mr Holness’s portfolio responsibility as minister and both of which operate in the real estate sector.

The investigation report had flagged the appointment of Brown as posing significant conflict of interest concerns.

“These concerns emanate from the fact that both entities fall under Mr Holness’s portfolio as minister of economic growth and job creation,” the IC said. However, it concluded that there is no direct evidence to suggest that there were any improprieties on the part of Holness and Brown.

The Opposition leader said Holness has placed Jamaica and its “cherished” democracy in a dangerous and untenable situation.

“His integrity issues cannot be resolved, partly because of the baffling complexity of his personal financial affairs. He operated no less than 28 bank accounts. His three personal companies were involved in a very high volume of transactions averaging over four per banking day during the period of review, including many substantial, inter-company payments, and including over $4.5 million of so-called cardless cash deposits made over a three months period into his bank account by depositors whose identity remains unknown to the commission. And partly, the matter is unresolved because Mr Holness’s own refusal to provide information about aspects of his affairs which was requested by the IC for the purposes of their investigation,” he said.

Opposition spokesperson on justice, Senator Donna Scott-Mottley, claimed that what she finds “most egregious” is the fact that the prime minister did no tell the country he was under investigation.

“Because when he was asked if anyone in this party was under investigation for [alleged] illicit enrichment he had searched [far] and wide and there was nobody, perhaps he should have searched close, because, as it turned out, he knew at the time that he was under investigation. Jamaica has to take a stand. There is no resignation call which is premature. He should know what to do. He should do the right thing…He should step aside,” she said.

Former PNP MP Cabinet Minister KD Knight said that one of the things that jumped out at him as he read the 172-page report was the question of why one would need to have 28 bank accounts.

He argued that the prime minister cannot run a country and run private businesses at the same time; it’s one or the other. “It is clear that one of the reasons why the country is in the condition it is in now is that sufficient time is not being spent by the chief executive officer to run the country,” he said.

“What also jumped out at me is that if it is that a prime minister is being investigated, how can he be the chief accountable officer for discipline, law and order in a country? He cannot occupy the post and find himself in this position and do that which he was elected to do efficiently…and, therefore, a call for his resignation is justified…because of what this report contains, both in terms of the volume of his association with other companies and allegations contained therein. Had this been the private sector, that private sector employee would have been sent on leave pending investigation. No private company in Jamaica would have caused someone against whom these allegations have [been] levelled to continue in the highest position in that company. It’s untenable,” he said.

“My advice to Mr Holness is a simple one. I’ve made some enquiries and I’m told that he has a bag. I say to him, start packing, because you are going. And if you don’t believe me, speak to Mr Bruce Golding. Pack your bags, put in your clothes and your belongings, because you can’t stay as prime minister of Jamaica, because the international reputation of Jamaica is important and you have, by allowing these allegations, brought Jamaican into disrepute,” he said.

Holness, who has “strongly rejected” the recommendations of the IC that the FID and TAJ examine his financial dealings, insisting that he has broken no law, has received the support of several of his counterparts who say he is going nowhere and expressed confidence in his integrity. They include Young Jamaica, the young arm of the JLP, and the Government Senate caucus.