Editorial | Inspiration from TCI 

Last month’s jailing of former Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) premier Michael Misick and two of his ministers brought to an end a long, complex, and expensive corruption trial.

The people of the TCI will be glad that it is over. But they are also likely to have concluded that the territory is better off for the process. The trial demonstrated that no one, regardless of power or influence, is above the law, and that there can be consequences when elected officials and their enablers abuse the public’s trust and exploit their offices for private gain. This example should strengthen governance in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Yet this victory — which it is — does not belong only to the TCI. It is shared by the entire Commonwealth Caribbean, including Jamaica, whose nationals, on both sides of the matter, contributed as lawyers and judges to the outcome.

Viewed in this context, events in the Turks and Caicos align squarely with the ideals espoused by senior Jamaican anti-corruption officials at a conference of regional anti-corruption bodies, which opened in Kingston only days after Misick was sentenced to four years in prison.

Perhaps the most compelling of these principles was advanced by the executive director of the Integrity Commission, Craig Beresford, who argued that anti-corruption in the Caribbean should be treated “as a regional public good”.

The concept is elegant in its simplicity and profound in its truth. As with all public goods, the entire society benefits from the absence of corruption, with no disadvantageous costs to its members — apart from the shared and manageable expense of maintaining oversight systems.

There was also the declaration by the Integrity Commission’s chairman, former judge Carol Lawrence-Beswick, that anti-corruption agencies must not flinch from litigation, even when cases are intended merely “to stymie our efforts”.

“… We must not be afraid of being challenged by litigation and shall not be afraid of it,” Justice Lawrence-Beswick told her regional counterparts.

“In fact, we must welcome it because of the confidence we have in our courts. The courts ultimately interpret the law and bring necessary clarification. So we welcome litigation and applaud those who bring it.

“But, if the litigation is designed to stymie our efforts, then that is another matter with which we have to deal. But we shall not be thwarted.”

The Turks and Caicos Islands, a British territory to the north of Jamaica, were, prior to independence, administered from Kingston. The TCI has significant internal autonomy, although Britain retains the right to intervene — which it did in 2008 when, amid allegations of widespread corruption by the Misick administration, it dispatched a London-based lawyer to conduct a commission of inquiry.

Sir Robin Auld concluded that there were “clear signs of political amorality and immaturity” and “administrative incompetence” in the Misick government, which operated with little or no checks and balances, allowing public officials almost free rein to demand and accept graft and kickbacks.

Ministers and their enablers sold “belonger” status in the TCI to wealthy foreigners and transferred public lands to investors in exchange for huge bribes. They amassed tens of millions of dollars while maintaining lavish lifestyles.

That came to an end after the Auld Inquiry led to indictments and, initially, a sprawling and complex trial involving several ministers. The proceedings, presided over by former president of Jamaica’s Court of Appeal, Paul Harrison, ran between 2012 and 2021. A number of Jamaican lawyers, as well as counsel from across the Caribbean, were involved.

After Justice Harrison’s death in 2021, and following earlier technical and jurisdictional battles, the matter was split into two more manageable parts. One was handled by Trinidadian judge Rajendra Narine, who also served on Barbados’ Court of Appeal, while the other was taken over by Chief Justice Mabel Agyemang.

Along the way, several minor players entered guilty pleas on lesser charges, while some foreign actors made multi-million-dollar payments to the TCI government under no-liability agreements.

In September 2023, Chief Justice Agyemang sentenced former Deputy Premier Floyd Basil Hall and former House Speaker Clayton Stanfield Greene to one year and six months, respectively, with confiscation orders of US$1.1 million and US$430,000. An appeal court later upheld the confiscation orders but imposed suspended sentences.

In February, Justice Narine convicted Misick, his brother Chal Misick, and former housing minister McAllister Hanchell on a range of corruption charges. Last month, they were jailed for four years and will also face hearings for the confiscation of assets.

In her remarks at the Kingston conference, Justice Lawrence-Beswick warned that anti-corruption agencies are “under siege”, facing challenges from quarters “we never dreamt of”, even as public demand — sometimes genuine, sometimes disingenuous — intensifies.

The pressures are real. But anti-corruption agencies must adhere to a simple and singular rule: be fair, courageous, and unrelenting.