The firestorm triggered by the Integrity Commission (IC) investigation report on Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s statutory declarations escalated on Thursday afternoon when he instructed his attorneys to file action against senior members of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) who, he said, defamed him at a mid-morning news conference.

Word of the prime minister’s return fire came in a news release from Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley, who confirmed the chief executive’s instructions to his legal team at Henlin Gibson Henlin.

“Should they not take the appropriate action, lawsuits will be filed against the PNP members who made the false statements and without any credible basis defamed the prime minister concerning the question of when he came into awareness of an illicit enrichment probe,” the release quotes Senator Fitz-Henley, who is also a member of the governing Jamaica Labour Party’s communication task force.

During the press conference, held at the Office of the Opposition Leader in St Andrew, PNP President Mark Golding, Opposition spokeswoman on justice Senator Donna Scott-Mottley, and former Cabinet member KD Knight repeated the PNP’s call for Holness to resign in the wake of the report.

Both Golding and Scott-Mottley charged that Holness knew that he was being investigated by the IC for illicit enrichment when he told the country that none of the members of his party were under such probe.

However, Fitz-Henley insisted that Holness spoke the truth when he indicated to the media on August 17, 2023 that he was not aware of any member of the Jamaica Labour Party being written to by the IC with an indication that they are under investigation for illicit enrichment.

That point was made by the law firm Henlin Gibson Henlin in a statement outlining the instructions received from Holness.

Giving a timeline of correspondence between the IC and their client contained in the report, the law firm said: “The documents confirm that at the time when our client addressed the matter on the 17th August 2023, the Integrity Commission had not communicated to our client that he was being investigated for illicit enrichment.

“The statements or suggestions in the public domain that the basis of the investigation came to the attention of our client since April 2023 are not accurate. Our instructions are to pursue legal action against persons who make statements in the public domain that are inconsistent with these facts.”

“The prime minister and party leader takes his reputation seriously and will not allow members of the PNP to attempt to use false and malicious statements to destroy his character in their desperate bid for political power,” said Fitz-Henley, who also indicated late Thursday evening that an accusation made by Knight was also cause for the defamation claim.

On Tuesday, after the IC report was tabled in Parliament, Holness delivered a personal statement on the matter and suggested that the law governing the IC be reviewed to prevent the work of the entity from being politicised. At the same time, he said he would not pursue the view that the long-running investigation into his statutory declarations for the years 2019-2022 was pulled into the realm of politics.

He said the weaponisation of accusations of corruption is nothing new in politics. “However, even the most sceptical onlooker must conclude that the handling of this matter, the time it has taken, and the public resources used to pursue it raise cause for concern on many levels.

“While I will not pursue the view that this was politicised, I believe it is commonly agreed that the law governing the Integrity Commission is in urgent need of revision. The current context of its operation does weaken its credibility, and we must do everything to ensure that the appropriate laws are in place to prevent the politicisation of the commission,” he said.

Holness also rejected some of the conclusions in the report and insisted that he has complied with the obligations placed on him within the law.

The IC’s director of investigation had recommended that Holness be sanctioned for making false statements in his statutory declarations, by way of omissions.

However, the commission’s director of corruption prosecution ruled that there is insufficient evidence on file to establish that Holness, by way of omission, made a false statement in his statutory declaration for the period ending December 31, 2021; therefore, no charges are to be laid against him.

On Thursday, the Jamaica Labour Party restated a concern “about the appearance that members of the PNP have unique access to information from the Integrity Commission”.