FLA Scandal | How Montague granted gun permits to six people with criminal traces

Robert Montague knowingly granted gun licences to persons with a criminal history while he was Jamaica's national security minister, the Integrity Commission has concluded in a damning report.  

Montague's predecessor from the Opposition People's National Party, Senator Peter Bunting, has also been named in the unfolding scandal.

READ: Bunting implicated in FLA scandal

READ: Dennis Meadows could be charged over FLA misconduct

The revelations are contained in a 245-page special investigation report on how the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) gave gun permits to persons convicted of, or charged with, various criminal offences involving drugs, lottery scamming, and illegal possession of firearms.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness will have to mull whether Montague, a minister without portfolio having been stripped of transport and mining in January, should remain in his Cabinet.  

As security minister from March 2016 to 2018, Montague was in charge of the FLA.

Legislation gives the minister the power to recommend permits, whether entirely of his own volition, or on the recommendation of a review board.  

The Integrity Commission said, the FLA board which was appointed in 2016 after the Jamaica Labour Party won state power “acted with impropriety in the issuance and/or grant of firearm user licences to persons of questionable character during the period 2016 to 2018”.  

That board was then headed by chairman Dennis Wright.  

The Integrity Commission's Director of Investigations Kevon Stephenson pointed to six instances in which Montague overruled the FLA and approved gun permits to persons with criminal traces whose applications were either denied or their licences revoked.  

One of the cases involved a person who was charged with drug and gun offences.

His application for a firearm licence was denied on March 27, 2012, on the basis that he did not establish a need to be so armed.  

However, on August 9, 2016, Montague approved the man's application.  

In another case, Montague approved a licence to a man who was convicted for numerous crimes involving illicit drugs, the use of counterfeit notes, as well as breaches of the Firearms Act.  

The man's licence was revoked by the FLA on at least two occasions, but on August 30, 2016, Montague gave the green light.  

In December 2016, Montague also granted a permit to a man who was implicated in an insurance fraud racket and whose application was denied by the FLA in August 2015.  

Also in December 2016, Montague granted a gun permit to a man who was arrested and charged for being in possession of personal information of a United States citizen. The charges were later dropped.

When news of this broke in 2018, Montague described the man as a national-security asset.

The Integrity Commission also said the man is alleged to have been a gang member, involved in lottery scamming, and reportedly possessed an illegal firearm.

His firearm licence was revoked on September 2015 but was restored a year later upon Montague's recommendation.

Montague admitted knowing the man, whom he said was from his St Mary Western constituency and who attended his campaign events.  

Questioned on the basis for his approvals in February 2018, Montague told the investigators that he made his decisions based on the information he received from his ministry, which included details on the files of the applicants.  

Montague also complained that ministerial discretion under the FLA Act was not defined.  

But the director of investigations said documents prepared by the FLA, as well as the application files of the persons who appealed, included information on their criminal backgrounds.  

 “It is the DI's opinion that the Hon. Robert Montague, MP, was aware of the criminal antecedents of applicants when he granted the appeal of FLA board decisions concerning certain firearm user licence applications,” the report said in reference to director of investigation.  

Stephenson said despite the presence of certain structures to help the minister decide, adverse traces against the applicants remained.  

The structures included the law giving the minister discretionary powers to overrule the FLA and the use of a panel by the minister to review appeals made to him.

In one instance, charges against an applicant were dismissed.  

The director of investigations said he did not glean any evidence of subsequent investigations which were conducted on the instruction of Montague or further intelligence reports requested to substantiate his decision to grant the firearm user licences on appeal.

In November 2016, the then Office of the Contractor General opened an investigation into a single case but expanded the probe a year later to cover the period 2012-2018.  

The special report, with many of its pages marked "draft", was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday but released to the media late Wednesday evening as concerns grew about the delay.  

The report comes amid public claims by the FLA boss Shane Dalling, who last month went public about questionable practises at the agency.

Dalling's allegations were not new, however, as the Dennis Wright-led board resigned in 2017 amid allegations that licences were being granted to unfit persons.

The Integrity Commission said it has received allegations concerning acts of abuse of power and corruption committed by Dalling at the FLA.

However, the report did not address those matters.  

It said allegations received on November 8, 2018 and January 11, 2019, about further acts of corruption; and other matters which fall outside its remit, are to be referred to the Financial Investigations Division and the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency for further investigations.  

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