KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Senator Peter Bunting is expressing concern over the Ministry of Finance’s sudden withdrawal of a press release that addressed the controversial change in the job description for the head of the Financial Investigations Division (FID).

The appointment of chartered accountant Dennis Chung as chief technical director of FID in May brought the Government under scrutiny due to the removal of the law enforcement requirement for the position.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Information Minister, Senator Dana Morris Dixon, said the requirement had been simply removed to broaden the pool of candidates, adding that an official press release would follow addressing the controversial topic.

READ: ‘Nothing to hide in FID selection’, says Morris Dixon

However, hours after the promised press release was issued, it was withdrawn.

Bunting, the Opposition spokesperson on national security, says the ministry’s abrupt retraction of its press release has only deepened public suspicion and raised more questions about the process.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” Bunting said in a statement on Thursday.

“First, we were told that Mr Chung was duly qualified for the post despite his public repudiation of the Integrity Commission’s findings regarding the prime minister’s uncertified statutory declarations. Then it was revealed that the job description was altered to remove the law enforcement experience requirement, a requirement which Mr Chung does not possess,” Bunting said.

“Now, the argument is that the candidate who was selected in the first round of interviews rejected the offer and the job description was changed to attract a broader pool of candidates. However, to my knowledge other senior, highly qualified JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) officers had also applied in the first round, so why didn’t the ministry make an offer to the second-ranked candidate who met the job requirements?” he questioned.

Challenging the validity of the explanation, Bunting labelled Chung’s appointment as a political ploy.

“It is now unmistakably clear that this appointment was carefully engineered to accommodate a hand-picked individual, and the Government is now engaged in an elaborate cover-up to conceal the irregularities in the process,” he claimed.

Deeming it a scandal, the senator said what makes it worse is the fact that changes to job descriptions in the public sector must undergo a formal job re-evaluation exercise which can take months to complete.

He pointed out that this is the standard for all public sector positions, as seen in previous cases involving the National Land Agency and other government agencies.

He is calling on the Public Service Commission to immediately disclose all details of the appointment process, including the identities of the interview panel members; on whose authority, and by what process, was the law enforcement qualification eliminated; and how many qualified candidates applied to each of the ads in the process.

The Opposition further demanded Chung’s resignation, stating that this is necessary to reassure the public that the FID remains free from undue political interference and retains the full capacity and independence to investigate high-level financial crimes, regardless of who may be implicated.

“At a time when public trust in institutions is already fragile, and our anti-corruption institutions are under assault, this episode threatens to further undermine confidence in the Government’s commitment to good governance, anti-corruption and the rule of law,” Bunting said.

The Opposition said it will continue to monitor the matter closely and will not hesitate to take further action to ensure that the integrity of the nation’s financial crime-fighting framework is protected.