KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dana Morris Dixon, says the Government has nothing to hide in the selection process regarding the new head of the Financial Investigations Division (FID).

“There is nothing to hide in relation to that selection process. There was a process that was engaged with, and a candidate was selected. There were two rounds that were done. In the first round, a candidate was selected, but that candidate opted not to accept the position,” Morris Dixon said.

She was speaking during a press conference on Tuesday, in response to reports that the Government had blocked access to information (ATI) requests regarding the adjustment in the criteria for the top job.

“The panel that had been doing the interviews decided that they had to go back out in order to get a new candidate because the candidate from the original round did not accept the offer,” she shared.

“Many entities go and do another round, and sometimes they may change the ad trying to get a broader pool of persons interested, and that is actually what happened there and so the ad was changed to get more people,” the minister added.

Morris Dixon maintained that the change, which referenced law enforcement experience, “didn’t seem controversial to the team because the criteria in relation to law enforcement experience was not one that was there from the very beginning”.

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In that regard she noted previous FID heads who did not meet that criteria.

“If you look at those who have headed the FID, they have not had law enforcement experience, except for one. The last two who were acting did not have it. The longest-serving head did not have specific law enforcement experience,” she maintained.

She added that in terms of the access to information request, responses were provided including scoring sheets and a contract to media houses that requested them, however: “Under the Access to Information Act, when a request is made, it’s a request for documents. Where there are no documents, the request cannot be honoured. So what I have said today is conversations that would have taken place as a part of the interview process. That’s not a document, so that cannot be provided under an ATI request.”

“So there is nothing that’s being hidden in this process. It was your regular maybe two-part, two-step process that was involved,” Morris Dixon maintained.