THE Integrity Commission (IC) has thrown another punch at Jamaica’s parliamentarians despite claims from government representatives that its chairman, Justice Seymour Panton, was disrespectful in his opening statement at the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee of Parliament meeting on Tuesday.

In a release on Wednesday, the IC took aim at Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Western Everald Warmington who had used a sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament on Tuesday to declare that he would not approve any further expenditure to the commission until he sees audited accounts of its expenditure.

“The Integrity Commission remains concerned that there are parliamentarians who continue to exhibit a clear lack of knowledge, or understanding, of the very laws that they are elected to write. It is also obvious that some parliamentarians do not read the reports of the Integrity Commission that are routinely tabled in the House of Representatives,” the commission said in the release.

The commission pointed out that contrary to the statements that were made by Warmington, its accounting and financial affairs have been audited every year in its six years of existence.

“The audits, in each case, have been conducted by an independent external auditor whose appointment has been approved, in writing, by the Minister of Finance [Dr Nigel Clarke] himself,” said the IC.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the annual audits of the commission have been conducted pursuant to and in compliance with Section 20(1) of the ICA [Integrity Commission Act], which provides that ‘the commission shall keep proper accounts of its receipts, payments, assets, and liabilities, and such accounts shall be audited annually by an auditor appointed each year by the commission with the approval of the Minister [of Finance]’.

“In respect of the 2023/2024 Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2024, the commission’s annual report, inclusive of the audited and signed financial statements for that fiscal year, was submitted to Parliament on June 26, 2024. The report was formally tabled in the House of Representatives on July 9, 2024,” added the IC.

It said it noted with alarm the comments made by Warmington in which he falsely claimed that the financial and accounting affairs of the commission have not been audited for years and that no audit report had been submitted by the commission to Parliament. “We haven’t seen an audit of that department [the Integrity Commission] tabled in this House, but they are spending taxpayers’ money,” Warmington said in questions to the finance minister.

“I am saying, Minister, that we [must] get an audit report from that department before the next financial year. There is no way that we are going to approve another $2 billion for a department that has not been audited for years, okay. So I expect that the audit be laid here before March next year,” added Warmington.

The IC pointed out that in his response Clarke said, “I don’t think any reasonable person could object to your requirements. These are public funds and I have no reason to expect that that’s a difficult proposition.”

But the commission noted that the letter which approved the appointment of an independent external auditor to audit its accounts and financials was signed by Clarke on April 24, 2024.

“Ironically the Integrity Commission Parliament Oversight Committee, of which Mr Warmington is a member, met with the commission for several hours yesterday [Tuesday] morning . One of the stated purposes of the meeting was to review the 2023/2024 Annual Report of the commission, inclusive of the commission’s audited financial statements for the 2023/2024 Fiscal Year. The audited financial statements appear in the last 31 pages of the annual report,” the commission noted.

Following Tuesday’s meeting of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee, Panton came under fire from members of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), led by Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, for his comments during the sitting.

“Retired Justice Panton should introspect and offer a suitably worded apology to the Parliament for his contemptuous comments,” said Tavares-Finson after pointing to the IC chairman’s suggestion that reports and/or information from the commission might have leaked into the public domain via the Parliament of Jamaica.

Tavares-Finson also chided Panton for comments in which he questioned whether there is some contamination of water consumed by parliamentarians and further recommended psychiatric evaluation of parliamentarians

According to Tavares-Finson, these comments were “rude, disrespectful, offensive, and out of order”.