During the session of the parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing and evaluating the Integrity Commission’s (IC) operations, Justice Seymour Panton categorically refuted allegations that the body is biased and motivated by malice.
Panton, the panel’s chairman, stated at the outset of his evidence before the Integrity Panel Oversight Committee that the people making the allegations are aware of their dishonesty.
- Advertisement -
Retired jurist Panton stated, “The commissioners have noted over the past couple of years that remarks have been made that the commission is partisan and that there is malice in its operations. I’d just like to point out that the people who made those statements know that it is not true. They know that we know it is not true, and they know that Jamaicans know that it’s not true.”
Panton also emphasized earlier praise for the IC expressed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who stated, “The commission continues to distinguish itself, operating without fear or favor in pursuit of a just and corruption-free society”.
Panton also mentioned how the IC’s reports to Parliament were leaked ahead of time, raising the possibility that a member of Parliament may have been behind the disclosures.
Panton emphasized that the IC’s 2022–2023 annual report was sent to the Parliament in late June and that the letter he signed delivering it there was dated June 24, 2024, noting, “I did notice that no sooner than the annual report left the offices of the Integrity Commission there was public broadcast of it before it was tabled. And I noticed that it happened also with another report that was sent subsequently, and another report that was sent last week.”
Panton further noted, “If it is thought that anyone in the commission is leaking these reports, we would like it brought to our attention, we’d like it investigated, because anybody in the commission who leaks, if it’s an employee instant dismissal.”
“But I find it strange that all these things would be leaked immediately after [they] leave the commission and [are] sent to Parliament. I find it puzzling to understand if it is happening from the commission, and why is it that the leak is delayed until it is sent away from the office. I cast no aspersions,” he stated.
Senator Tom Tavares-Finson, the president of the Senate, was incensed by Panton’s remarks and sharply chastised the commission head in a statement following their meeting.
Even though Tavares-Finson is not on the oversight committee, he expressed his confidence that the procedures that Parliament follows strictly adhere to the privacy of reports before they are voted on are without reproach.
When Panton proposed that information from the panel be disclosed only after it is forwarded to the legislature, he was charged with deceiving Parliament.
Tavares-Finson stated, “This is not so. We had an instance where in November of 2023 details concerning an alleged probe by the commission were reported in extensive detail by The Gleaner before any report was sent to Parliament. In another instance, an Opposition Member of Parliament recently used a political platform to, in a most vulgar manner, predict the tabling of a report by the Integrity Commission.”
Justice Panton informed the committee at the meeting that the IC “takes orders from no one other than the court”.
He also claimed that no lawmakers had denounced the action taken by an MP who had published a paper with the images of four commissioners and accused them of attempting to overthrow the government.
He asserted that the IC should not be mocked for carrying out its duties, saying, “We are doing what the legislation permits us to do.”
He shared, “There are also parliamentarians sending out WhatsApp notes of all sorts of reprehensible things, and I hope that somebody will take the leadership to correct them. We on the commission are committed to doing what the legislation permits us to do. That is what is happening and it is not fair for the employees to be set in a stage where they can be set upon.”
Panton also stated to the committee that neither he nor the IC’s commissioners are spiteful because they have been lay preachers in the Methodist church for many years.
He noted, “There may be persons who need to repent, and they can join me at church — Providence Methodist — any Sunday.”
The former jurist then brought some humor into the exchange.
Presenting a bottle of water that he had removed from his luggage, Justice Panton declared, “I don’t know if something is wrong with the water in Parliament why some people, the moment they get into Parliament they say certain things and behave a certain way. I don’t know if that is it. As a result, I decided that I wasn’t going to take the chance of drinking any water here.”
Additionally, he stated that he hopes to make an effort to meet with government senator and psychiatrist Dr. Saphire Longmore, “to have a word with her because it may well be that she needs to have a word with some members of the House”.
However, Tavares-Finson took exception to those remarks, characterizing them as “rude, disrespectful, offensive and out of order”.
He spoke, saying Justice Panton, “should introspect and offer a suitably worded apology to the Parliament for his contemptuous comments”.
Committee Chairman Edmund Bartlett responded by saying that the assertions made by Panton worry him and the other committee members and that he has told them that, “there is no determined effort to undermine or otherwise to stigmatize and/or categorize any member [of the commission] in any negative or derogatory way.”
According to Bartlett, the committee was set up to facilitate improved and stronger working relationships and to dispel any concerns and uncertainties that could exist or seem to exist regarding the commission, the Parliament, or lawmakers.
