KINGSTON, Jamaica — The statutory declarations of all members of the Cabinet will be made public if the People’s National Party (PNP) forms the government after the upcoming general election.

That commitment was given by PNP President Mark Golding during a parish meeting at Musgrave Square, Brown’s Town in St Ann on Thursday night.

Currently, only the declarations of Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and Golding, in his capacity as Opposition Leader, are filed with the Integrity Commission (IC), Jamaica’s main anti-corruption watchdog. The declarations are made public by law in summary form. Golding is looking to expand the number of persons required to publicly declare their income and expenditure.

He highlighted that only he and the prime minister must publicly declare and remarked that, “That nuh mek sense to me, every member of the Executive (Cabinet) who’s in government, they should have to have the summary of their declarations published as a matter of course. That is what good governance requires and the next PNP government is going to deliver good governance to the people of Jamaica”.

The Opposition Leader also took a swipe at Holness who has several years of declarations yet to be certified by the IC, and who has a case against the Commission before the court following a damning investigation report made public last September in which it was revealed that the head of government was investigated for illicit enrichment.

Golding declared that the PNP will support the institutions of good government in the country and that he was the architect of the Integrity Commission, “Because I realised corruption was a terrible problem in the country, holding us back as a nation”.

He then asked, “How can we have a situation where the most important anti-corruption institution in the country is in court fighting for its life, a case brought by the Prime Minister himself trying to strike down the very piece of legislation which he’s under investigation for. It is a disgrace; it is a cloud over the image and reputation of Jamaica”.

Golding pledged his support for both the IC and the Financial Investigations Division. Regarding the IC he said, “All I ask of them is that they deal with everybody fairly but they must leave no stone unturned and the government must not interfere in their work. Let the chips fall where they may”.

Golding also told party supporters that “We will restore the Office of the Political Ombudsman as an office that can look into hanky panky in electoral matters and bad conduct and provide some recourse to all of those who’re doing wrong things right now, tearing down people poster and other wrong things”

And, he said the PNP will reexamine the so-called gag clause in the Integrity Commission Act which forbids the IC from even acknowledging that an investigation is underway into any individual, until and unless such a probe is completed and an investigation report is tabled in the Parliament. A joint select committee of the Parliament examining the Act recently voted to keep the gag clause in place.

For Golding, “The gag clause is too one-sided. We want a better balance between protecting people’s reputation and transparency to ensure that wrongdoing is exposed”.