Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has recommended that a senior retired chartered accountant and a senior retired attorney-at-law be added to the complement of commissioners of the Integrity Commission (IC).

Chuck made the recommendation during Thursday’s meeting of the joint select committee (JSC) of Parliament examining the Integrity Commission Act, 2017.

It came a day after Government members on the committee used their majority to push through a recommendation by St Catherine South Western Member of Parliament Everald Warmington for a change in the rules that make the auditor general (AG) a commissioner of the IC.

“I would recommend that we expand the list of commissioners to include, in one category, a senior attorney-at-law, or senior chartered accountant,” Chuck said. Such appointees must come with 10 to 15 years’ experience in their respective fields he said.

Chuck also recommended that commissioners of the IC be drawn from among the private sector. Currently, the law dictates that commissioners must be senior retired public servants although Commissioner Wayne Powell, a retired banker, has never worked in the public sector but has served on public sector boards.

“We need to expand this beyond senior retired public officials,” Chuck stated. He appeared to have recommended that the panel of commissioners be expanded to six; however, Solicitor General Marlene Aldred, who is providing guidance to the committee, suggested that in order to accommodate the senior attorney and chartered accountant, the committee should consider removing one of the retired justices.

She urged them to use the opportunity presented by the review of the legislation to make it clear in the law what categories they wanted to include in terms of qualification for commissioners.

“Rather than have a debate about how you can interpret a provision…you have the opportunity now to add your categories from whom you can pull your commissioners. You’re going to have five commissioners, have five categories,” Aldred said.

Chuck seemed settled on having an accountant replace the auditor general. He said that if the recommendation to remove the auditor general is accepted by the Parliament, “we put a chartered accountant [in her place]”.

Apart from Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis, the panel of commissioners is rounded out by two retired justices and two retired bankers. Justice Carol Lawrence Beswick is chairman. She is joined by Justice Lloyd Hibbert and bankers Powell and Brian Wynter, a former governor of the Bank of Jamaica.

Section 8 of the IC Act 2016 states that the “commission shall consist of the following persons appointed as commissioners — the auditor general and four other persons appointed by the governor general, by instrument in writing, after consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition”.

The two Opposition members present at Wednesday’s meeting of the JSC — Dr Morais Guy and Julian Robinson — both opposed removing the auditor general.

“I don’t have a difficulty with the auditor general being a commissioner of the IC. If the basis is that the AG audits a particular commissioner, I don’t think it is done by the AG; in fact, it is not done by the AG,” said Guy.

Robinson told committee members, “I support the auditor general remaining a member of the Integrity Commission. In my understanding, where audits are done of the Integrity Commission, they’re done not by the Auditor General’s Department, but by an independent accounting firm which removes that issue of a conflict of interest. I will not support her removal from the Integrity Commission.”

However, Government members Tova Hamilton, Pearnel Charles Jr, Chuck, and Sherene Golding-Campbell all sided with Warmington. They argued that the auditor general being a commissioner could lead to a possible conflict of interest. They also argued that the IC, which receives approximately $2 billion annually from central government to fund its operations, must be subjected to the type of audit that only the Auditor General’s Department can conduct.