By Kimone Witter
President of the Jamaica Civil Service Association, O'Neil Grant, is in support of the suggestion for prosecutorial powers to be removed from the Integrity Commission.
Mr. Grant says a special prosecutor should be established within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to handle cases from the Integrity Commission.
Everald Warmington, Member of Parliament for South West St. Catherine, on Wednesday suggested that prosecution for acts of corruption should be the responsibility of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
This was among the recommendations put forward by Mr. Warmington for amendments to the Integrity Commission Act, to curb the powers of the Commission.
Mr. Warmington was speaking at a meeting of the Joint Select Committee reviewing the Integrity Commission Act.
Speaking Thursday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Mr. Grant said he had made the recommendation before a previous Joint Select Committee in 2014 for the prosecution of corruption cases to be managed from the DPP's office.
"I think if that was the case, we would have been in a better position to gauge whether or not one director of the Integrity Commission is in conflict with another," he said, adding that "the optic of independence is very critical to the function of the Commission".
Mr. Grant insisted that removing prosecutorial powers is crucial to restoring confidence in the Integrity Commission.
"When you have an independent prosecutor outside of any department, you give the public the confidence that due oversight will be done on any report of any investigation that comes to that prosecutor, and that is what we are asking for. If it is that they can build that independence within the Integrity Commission, that will satisfy the concern of what I just spoke of, that is something that can be explored," he suggested.
