JLP youth arm intensifies pressure on Golding in JACDEN controversy

The ruling Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) youth arm is calling on People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding to disclose whether a company at the centre of a tax exemption controversy contributed to its 2025 general election campaign.

“The public has a right to know,” Young Jamaica said in a statement on Monday. “Golding must state how much money, if any, was donated by JACDEN to the PNP between January 2022 and September 2025.”

JACDEN Group of Companies, a healthcare and janitorial services firm, is one of four firms featured in an Auditor General’s Department report on the University Hospital of the West Indies' (UHWI) "misuse" of its tax-exempt status.

"UHWI inappropriately utilised its tax-exempt status to import goods for private companies, resulting in losses totalling $23.1 million," the audit report said.

JACDEN is owned by businessman Dennis Gordon, a Member of Parliament and chairman of the PNP’s Region Three, one of the party’s most influential organisational divisions covering Kingston and St Andrew.

Amid mounting public pressure, Golding on Sunday announced that Gordon would step aside from Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the body that scrutinises the country's finances, and the shadow cabinet pending an investigation by the party’s Integrity Commission.

“In coming to this decision, I wish to reiterate that I am not aware of anything which suggests Gordon or JACDEN has breached any law,” Golding said in a statement.

Young Jamaica has described Golding’s defence as “disgraceful, unacceptable, indefensible, and repugnant.”

It said it was “not surprised” by the position taken by the PNP president.

Young Jamaica also said the move does not go far enough and renewed its call for the first-time lawmaker to resign as Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Central and as PNP Region Three chairman.

“A mere recusal from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Shadow Cabinet does not nearly suffice,” it said.

Pressed at a January 29 news conference on whether he had raised the matter with Gordon, the opposition leader said he would not disclose the details of discussions he had with Gordon. “Suffice to say, he knows my position because my position is not new. And he agrees with my position that chips must fall where they lie, if there's anything in any kind of allegation," he said.

“At this juncture, he (Gordon) has maintained that he has done nothing wrong. And I have no reason to doubt that because I haven't seen any official investigation, any official report suggesting otherwise," Golding said then.

Young Jamaica also called for PAC Chairman Julian Robinson to resign, citing what it described as his defence of Gordon and the company.

Last week, Robinson, who is an MP in St Andrew and finance spokesman, stated on Radio Jamaica’s Beyond the Headlines that JACDEN repaid the approximately $10 million it saved when UHWI misused its tax exemption to import goods on its behalf.

“A report was done by Customs. It identified what the duties are and Mr Gordon has paid those duties,” he said.

Robinson said he was informed the amount was approximately $10 million and that Gordon had shared the information with him before last Tuesday’s sitting of the committee, which examined the multimillion-dollar breaches uncovered in an audit of the health facility in January.

Gordon has rejected calls for his resignation, insisting neither he nor his company, JACDEN Limited, engaged in wrongdoing in relation to the UHWI tax exemption issue.

“If the Auditor General had fined me, had indicted me for anything, I would have been the first to resign, because I did not go to politics for a pay cheque, I entered politics for service,” the Jamaica Observer reported on Sunday.

Gordon said JACDEN had entered into a longstanding arrangement involving the use of a facilitation process but admitted that there was a “mistake”.

“My company entered into an arrangement with an entity which approved the use of its facilitation, which is convention, [and] this has been going on for more than 20 years. Having realised that a mistake was made, I could only do the honourable thing by correcting that mistake,” said Gordon.

He added that while he was not directly involved in the operational process, he has accepted responsibility for the actions of his company.

“I was not directly involved, but that does not mean I don’t have to take responsibility for my company’s actions, because I own the company. So, what was [the] cry — that the taxpayers would have shorted out of $10.1 million, and so I said to Customs, ‘Give me an assessment of what it would have cost so I can pay.’”

Gordon said the company subsequently made payment after Jamaica Customs assessed the amount owed.

“They reached out to me and said I should pay approximately $10.1 million, which I paid. So, what is the crime? My only crime is my success and that I am a PNP Member of Parliament,” Gordon added.

In a statement in February, weeks after the report was released, JACDEN denied any misconduct, noting that the audit report “does not name JACDEN Group of Companies, nor does it make any finding of fraud, misconduct, or wrongdoing against JACDEN.”

It added that its engagement with UHWI is conducted under formal arrangements and in accordance with all applicable policies and procedures.

The Auditor General’s report noted that in 2024 the hospital “misused” its tax-exempt status to import $40.6 million in office furniture and dialysis machines for a company referred to as Private Company 2, which received tax relief valued at $10.1 million.

At the PAC meeting, UHWI Acting Chief Executive Officer Eric Hosin named the companies.

Three other companies — Supreme Laundry Services, Willman Sales, and Scientific Medical Services — also benefited from the UHWI’s misuse of its tax exemption status, Hosin confirmed.

The audit said the breaches resulted in the public coffers losing $23.1 million.

The Integrity Commission, the police, and the Jamaica Customs Agency are currently probing the matter.

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