Corruption In Jamaica: Not Just Politicians And Cops.…..

You know when Politicians are bemoan­ing the lev­el of cor­rup­tion in your soci­ety that soci­ety is in trou­ble. In recent times Trevor Monroe an Attorney and for­mer head of the now defunct Communist Workers Party of Jamaica has bemoaned the lev­el of cor­rup­tion in the Jamaican society,.
Monroe also heads the National Integrity Action (NIA) a NGO he set up to mon­i­tor cor­rup­tion in Government.
Additionally, there has been calls from oth­er sec­tors of civ­il soci­ety regard­ing the high lev­el of cor­rup­tion and nepo­tism in the Jamaican society.
All of this seem to be falling on deaf ears for the (PNP) Portia Simpson Miller led Administration.
Even with con­tin­ued neg­a­tive reports from International Corruption Ratings Agencies like Transparency International, there seem to be no change or even a desire to cre­ate the impres­sion of change.

Like many oth­ers The Director Of Public Prosecution’s office seem not to ful­ly under­stand that there needs to be an air of account­abil­i­ty and hon­esty in the country.
One office how­ev­er seem to get it, that is the office of Contractor General.
Yet that office does not have pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al pow­ers to ade­quate­ly put a dent in corruption.
This fact can­not be lost on Jamaicans who are pay­ing atten­tion to whats hap­pen­ing in our country.
This Administration has enhanced INDECOM the Bruce Golding brain-child which he cre­at­ed in response to mas­sive cor­rup­tion with­in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
INDECOM has tremen­dous pow­ers to arrest those with pow­ers to arrest. Since INDECOM has pow­er to arrest the Police, why is there no pow­er of arrest and pros­e­cu­tion for the Contractor General?
It must be argued then that INDECOM was cre­at­ed with the express intent of not only rein­ing in Police mis­con­duct , but to pre­vent seri­ous inves­ti­ga­tions and arrest of the Political directorate.
Just today The Jamaica Gleaner reports that the DPP refused to pros­e­cute the Mayor of Lucea, Shernet Haughton.
Haughton report­ed­ly issued some 22 con­tracts, worth more than $3.7 mil­lion to 11 of her rel­a­tives and per­sons affil­i­at­ed with her. The DPP ruled against pre­fer­ring crim­i­nal charges against her. Director Paula Llewelyn said although the evi­dence of nepo­tism is over­whelm­ing, it is not an offence known to the crim­i­nal law. Paula Llewelyn the DPP said her office will not be directed.
In oth­er words no one tells me what to do.
Talk about a Government Agency with­out over­sight or prop­er accountability.

HYPE
Everything for us Jamaicans is about hype. Everything is done for hype, pre­tense, show off, take your pick. Every office-hold­er is about hype, no one tell me what to do . Is it any won­der the coun­try is in the pick­le it’s in?
Even as a pha­lanx of spe­cial inter­est Groups have waged a vis­cer­al cam­paign to hand­cuff and shack­le the police depart­ment. Even as crime con­tin­ues on it’s upward trek unabated.
There is no out­cry from those spe­cial inter­est groups about the cor­rup­tion eat­ing away at the core of the Jamaican Nation.
Entities like the Norman Manley Law School are more than vocal advo­cates for the com­pre­hen­sive neu­ter­ing of the Jamaican police. They have waged inces­sant lob­by cam­paigns geared com­plete­ly at ren­der­ing the police depart­ment impo­tent, in sup­port of INDECOM.

I am a lit­tle out­raged that despite what is mas­sive cor­rup­tion in the Country’s legal fra­ter­ni­ty the Norman Manley Law School has been con­spic­u­ous­ly silent.
Lawyers trained by the Norman Manley Law School are prac­tic­ing law as pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers and ulti­mate­ly Magistrates and Judges.
It is impor­tant that the law school hold their own accountable .
In a recent report it was revealed that every year scores of lawyers are dis­barred from prac­tic­ing law in Jamaica.Additionally some are dis­barred sev­er­al times over , yet they still oper­ate as lawyers before they are final­ly removed from the roles of the Jamaican Bar Association.
The inci­dents which neces­si­tate dis­bar­ment range from pro­fes­sion­al neg­li­gence, fail­ure to com­mu­ni­cate with the clients, fail­ing to deal with mat­ters expe­di­tious­ly, accord­ing to chair­per­son of the Disciplinary Committee of the GLC of the Jamaican Bar Association Walter Scott.
Scott was quick to state that less than five per cent of the lawyers who have been sub­ject­ed to dis­ci­pli­nary action involves clients money.
READ STORY HERE Bad Lawyers Banned For Life!

That is plain unfil­tered BS. For years Jamaican Lawyers like Post Office Workers, Custom Officers and oth­ers have had seri­ous cas­es of sticky-fin­gers-dis­ease [sic] when it comes to oth­er peo­ple’s mon­ey. It is unadul­ter­at­ed cow-manure to argue that only a small amount of their trans­gres­sions are relat­ed to embez­zle­ment , or oth­er acts of thievery.
Where are the Ivory Tower dwellers who are usu­al­ly quick with the eight fin­gers point­ing to police and oth­ers? The (GLC) General Legal Council is a group of lawyers, their task is to police their own.
Why should the pub­lic be com­fort­able that only 50 of the coun­try’s more than 4,000 attor­neys-at-law have been banned for life from prac­tic­ing law in Jamaica.
What about the thou­sands of Jamaicans who have sim­ply giv­en up because they can get nowhere with the slow-paced almost sta­t­ic so-called inves­ti­ga­tions under­tak­en by the GLC ?
The fact of the mat­ter is that far greater num­bers of the nation’s lawyers are cor­rupt crim­i­nals clothed in noble robes , parad­ing as respectable offi­cers of the courts.
There is no inde­pen­dent over­sight for them as such the peo­ple have to wait on them to police them­selves. In the end hard­ly any­thing is done many are ele­vat­ed to high­er offices .
Lets put this issue of cor­rup­tion in cor­rect perspective.