Appointing an anti-corruption czar was always going to be shrouded in controversy in Jamaica’s deep, ugly environment of malfeasance, and Mr Greg Christie, for his sins, would inherit that thankless mantle as contractor general in 2005.

His friends might have joked that he must enjoy being beaten upon when he left but later resumed that journey in 2020 — this time as executive director of the Integrity Commission (IC), the now upgraded anti-corruption body.

Mr Christie’s decision not to seek renewal of his IC contract which ended in May this year could be a suggestion that he has at last had enough.

But, given his incisive remarks in his parting shot, the fight against corruption is far from over.

Stressing the need for serious review of the Integrity Commission Act (ICA), in comments in the annual report of the Integrity Commission tabled in Parliament last week, he insisted that the law has “a number of ambiguities and inherent conflicts — both patent and latent — thus rendering its interpretation, application, and enforcement, uncertain, unreliable, and problematic”.

“It requires urgent, sober, impartial, and decisive address. This is more so since indications are that the country is currently moving in the direction of weakening the Integrity Commission Act (ICA), rather than strengthening it,” he argued.

The question that the nation will need to ask itself is how effective was Mr Christie in carrying out his role and, perhaps, does his departure from the commission represent a loss that we could collectively come to regret?

If nothing else, Mr Christie was a terrier and a bulldog combined, if one can be forgiven the metaphors. His harshest critics would not deny him his courage and stubborn tenacity, even if he could be accused of being overzealous.

We in this space have had occasion to fret about “his penchant for rushing to the public with even the most spurious and unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing, caring not that when one’s name is dragged through the mud, even after it is proven to be unjustified, the damage is done. A hard-won reputation destroyed in an instant”, as written in our editorial of September 24, 2023.

In that same year, after the agency came under fire for its poor handling of the findings of a probe into conflict of interest allegations against Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Mr Christie tweeted a media report on that matter, without reference to a ruling by the IC’s own director of corruption prosecution, that there was no evidence to charge the prime minister. That was a grievous misstep.

Still, we acknowledge that, under his watch, the Contractor General’s Office achieved significant improvement in probity, compliance, transparency, and accountability in the government contract award process.

When he left to take up a similar post in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2012, his doggedness had resulted in an unprecedented and record 100 per cent compliance rate among the Jamaica’s 200 public bodies for 13 consecutive quarters.

Only a thorough, disinterested, evidence-based, and credible evaluation of the job Mr Christie has done will determine his effectiveness.

In the meantime, we take his point that insisting upon transparency, integrity, and holding public officials accountable are fundamental to socio-economic development and the protection of democratic freedoms.