JFJ says Holness should withdraw Curtis letter today, make public apology
Published:Tuesday | April 23, 2024 | 12:13 AM
LEADER OF Government Business in the House of Representatives Edmund Bartlett will today open the annual Sectoral Debate in Parliament.
Lawmakers took a break after the end of the Budget Debate on March 26 but had to rush back to Parliament on April 9 to pass an amendment to the Appropriations Act after the Ministry of Finance discovered that statutory expenditures were “inadvertently” included in the schedule, which was not in keeping with a provision in the Constitution.
As Government and Opposition legislators prepare to get back to work in Gordon House today, the people’s representatives have unfinished business as they had signalled earlier this month that tributes would be paid to former Clerk to the Houses, Valrie Curtis, who went on retirement on April 6.
Executive Director of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) Mickel Jackson said she hopes the Speaker of the House Juliet Holness will heed the calls of civil society and issue a public apology and withdraw the letter of reprimand to the former clerk.
“It is our position that one cannot honour an individual with glowing tributes while soiling unfairly and unlawfully an individual’s employment record with a damning letter. The two are incongruous,” she told The Gleaner.
Speaker Holness had dispatched the letter to 62 lawmakers rebuking Curtis for allegedly failing to carry out her November 7 ruling on how audit reports on public bodies from the auditor general should be tabled.
Curtis has subsequently told The Gleaner in an exclusive interview that she carried out her duties diligently and complied with the ruling of the Speaker in how reports from the auditor general should be handled.
To date, Holness has not signalled as to whether she will withdraw the controversial letter or tender an apology to the former clerk to the Houses.
At the same time, the JFJ head told The Gleaner that she will be watching closely today to see if the five reports from the Integrity Commission (IC) will be tabled in the House.
“We hope that the Government has learnt from the series of missteps over the past several weeks and recognise that it is in the public’s interest and good governance not to have said reports languishing with the oversight committee. If we are serious about transparency and anti-corruption, nothing else should be expected,” Jackson declared.
The IC said a week ago that it is anticipating that its investigation reports, which were submitted in conformance with Section 54 of the Integrity Commission Act, together with the associated indicative rulings, will be tabled in both Houses of Parliament as soon as possible.
Section 54(4) of the Integrity Commission Act provides that: “Where the report (from the director of investigation) to the commission has a recommendation under Subsection (3), the commission shall submit it to Parliament for tabling … .”
The November 7, 2023 ruling of Speaker Holness stated that reports from the director of investigation submitted under Section 54(4) will be tabled “as soon as possible” after receipt by Parliament.