CABINET member Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon on Wednesday led a Jamaica Labour Party chorus in defence of Prime Minister Andrew Holness following the latest Integrity Commission (IC) report which they said unfairly tried to tarnish his reputation.

Responding to a question at the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, Morris Dixon said the latest report from the IC was personally troubling as there was no reason for the PM to be singled out.

“I personally feel really bad about what is happening and I tell you why because I see someone who is working really, really hard for a country and who I see his reputation being tarnished month after month after month. And what does he do? He gets up everyday and holds all of us in Cabinet accountable…he keeps pushing us [saying] ‘our country needs you to do more’,” said Morris Dixon.

“This is someone who I admire and this is someone who I would love to see more leaders like this in our country — leaders who are thinking big, leaders who in spite of any challenges, whether it’s personal challenges to them, or challenges to our country like a pandemic, get up and lead and lead us well, and he has been doing that in spite of everything that has been thrown at him and that says a lot about him and about his commitment to our country,” added Morris Dixon.

When asked if the prime minister can effectively lead the Government when his name has been linked to so many adverse IC findings, Morris Dixon pointed to how Holness led the country through the COVID-19 pandemic, how well the economy is being managed, and the achievement of a new low unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent.

“He is the one that has been steering us in terms of relooking the way we do infrastructure. When we look around our country, it looks completely different. If you ask any visitor who has not been to Jamaica for awhile how they feel about Jamaica when they come here, they say it looks like a very different place and it is a good thing and all of that has been led by our prime minister and so this is an individual who has given his life to supporting Jamaica in our dream of becoming a country that is seen as meeting its potential,” declared Morris Dixon.

Hours later the JLP, in a media release, said it condemned, “what appears to be unrelenting, baseless and coordinated attacks by a few agents within the Integrity Commission on the reputation of Prime Minister Holness and the JLP administration in Government.

“Thrice in under two years, agents within the commission have, without credible basis, attacked the prime minister’s reputation,” the JLP stated in the release from its Communication Taskforce spokesman Marlon Morgan.

Morgan pointed out that in February 2023, agents of the commission caused to be tabled a report in Parliament which suggested the prime minister be charged due to alleged conflict of interest but delayed publishing a ruling by the competent authority that there is no basis for prosecution.

He further charged that prior to the belated publication of the ruling which exonerated the prime minister, a senior director of the IC circulated across the world, via social media, content which suggested the prime minister could be facing prosecution when at the time of circulation that director would likely have known that to not be the case.

“Several months later, the director, without any basis, publicly attempted to blame the Government of Jamaica for a criminal shooting on a colleague who the police said was in the habit of transporting a large amount of cash. The director resisted widespread public calls for his resignation. To date, the director has not apologised for his reckless and intemperate utterance,” the statement said.

According to Morgan, the second attack on the prime minister’s reputation took place in March this year when agents in the IC caused to be tabled in Parliament a report, “which was filled with innuendos and mis-statements of fact and established no finding of impropriety or illicit enrichment on the part of Prime Minister Holness, notwithstanding a thorough examination of the PM’s financial affairs by an independent international forensic accounting examiner”.

Additionally, the party argued that an aspect of that report, which is now to be subjected to Judicial Review, also unreasonably suggested that the prime minister be charged for not declaring negligible sums of money in the bank accounts of his parents, which he had absolutely no knowledge of, or interest in. The competent authority within the IC ruled that no charge be laid.

“The third and potentially most egregious attack on the reputation of the prime minister came via a report which was tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 which sought to, without any credible basis, link the prime minister to a company which he is neither a director or shareholder of and does not own the property referenced therein,” the statement read.

In its report, the IC said its investigation found that the residential development, which is still under construction, is being constructed contrary to the terms of the planning approval and building permit issued by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) on July 12, 2021.

But the JLP argued that the report falsely stated that the entity had breached a building permit by constructing four rooms at a location where two were approved.

“This was stated in the report tabled in the House of Representatives on December 10 this year, despite documentation from the competent authority [the KSAMC] which was dispatched as recently as November this year and stated that the entity abided by the two room stipulation in its permit,” added the JLP in its statement.

In his response to the IC’s latest report, Holness expressed concern that he was being targeted by the agency and underscored that he has no link to the property that was investigated.

The development is owned by Estatebridge Holdings Limited, which has as its directors the prime minister’s son, Adam; as well as Norman Brown, a business partner of the prime minister, who is also chairman of the Urban Development Corporation; and Sydjea Anderson.