Justice Seymour Panton on Tuesday dismissed as untrue, accusations that the Integrity Commission (IC) is partisan and driven by malice as he issued a stout defence of the entity’s performance during the sitting of the parliamentary committee charged with monitoring and reviewing its functions.

Panton, who heads the commission, opened his statement to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee stating that the individuals who have made the accusations know that they are not true.

“The commissioners have noted over the past couple of years that remarks have been made that the commission is partisan and that there is malice in its operations. I’d just like to point out that the persons who made those statements know that it is not true. They know that we know it is not true, and they know that Jamaicans know that it’s not true,” said Panton, a retired jurist.

Panton also highlighted previous commendations of the IC by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who said “the commission continues to distinguish itself, operating without fear or favour in pursuit of a just and corruption-free society”.

Additionally, Panton addressed the issue of the IC’s reports to Parliament being leaked before they are tabled and insinuated that the leaks could be the doing of actors within the Parliament.

Pointing out that the IC’s 2022/23 annual report was dispatched to the Parliament in late June and the letter that he signed sending it to Parliament was dated June 24, 2024, Panton said, “I did notice that no sooner than the annual report left the offices of the Integrity Commission there was public broadcast of it before it was tabled. And I noticed that it happened also with another report that was sent subsequently, and another report that was sent last week.”

Added Panton: “If it is thought that anyone in the commission is leaking these reports, we would like it brought to our attention, we’d like it investigated, because anybody in the commission who leaks, if it’s an employee — instant dismissal.

“But I find it strange that all these things would be leaked immediately after [they] leave the commission and [are] sent to Parliament. I find it puzzling to understand if it is happening from the commission, why is it that the leak is delayed until it is sent away from the office. I cast no aspersions,” he said.

However, Panton’s comments angered Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson who, in a statement after committee meeting, strongly rebuked the commission chairman.

Tavares-Finson, who is not a member of the oversight committee, said he is confident that the integrity of the processes Parliament observes in zealously abiding by protocols concerning the confidentiality of reports prior to tabling is beyond reproach.

He accused Panton of misleading the Parliament when he suggested that information from the commission is leaked only after it is sent to the legislature.

“This is not so. We had an instance where in November of 2023 details concerning an alleged probe by the commission were reported on in extensive detail by The Gleaner before any report was sent to Parliament. In another instance, an Opposition Member of Parliament recently used a political platform to, in a most vulgar manner, predict the tabling of a report by the Integrity Commission,” Tavares-Finson said.

During Tuesday’s sitting, Justice Panton firmly told the committee that the IC “takes orders from no one other than the court”.

He also charged that an MP has released a document with photos of four commissioners, accusing them of trying to bring down the Government, but the action has not been condemned by any parliamentarian.

“We are doing what the legislation permits us to do,” he said and insisted that the IC should not be pilloried for doing its job.

“There are also parliamentarians sending out WhatsApp notes of all sorts of reprehensible things, and I hope that somebody will take the leadership to correct them. We on the commission are committed to doing what the legislation permits us to do. That is what is happening and it is not fair for the employees to be set in a stage where they can be set upon,” he said.

Panton also told the committee that he has been a lay preacher in the Methodist church for decades and as such it is not in his nature to be malicious, and neither are the IC’s commissioners.

“There may be persons who need to repent and they can join me at church — Providence Methodist — any Sunday,” he said.

The retired jurist then injected a light moment in the proceedings.

“I don’t know if something is wrong with the water in Parliament why some people, the moment they get into Parliament they say certain things and behave a certain way. I don’t know if that is it. As a result, I decided that I wasn’t going to take the chance of drinking any water here,” Justice Panton asserted as he displayed a bottle of water he had taken from his bag.

The gesture elicited laughter in the chamber.

He also said he intends to try to meet with Government Senator Dr Saphire Longmore, who is a psychiatrist, “to have a word with her because it may well be that she needs to have a word with some members of the House”.

Those comments, however, did not go down well with Tavares-Finson who described them as “rude, disrespectful, offensive and out of order”.

He said Justice Panton “should introspect and offer a suitably worded apology to the Parliament for his contemptuous comments”.

In response, committee Chairman Edmund Bartlett said he and the other members of the committee are concerned about Panton’s claims and assured them that “there is no determined effort to undermine or otherwise to stigmatise and/or categorise any member [of the commission] in any negative or derogatory way.”

Bartlett added that the committee was established to enable a better and stronger working relationship and to remove all the doubts and shadows that may appear or seem to appear over either the commission itself or the Parliament and parliamentarians.