Dirk Harrison, Acting Director of Corruption Prosecutions at the Integrity Commission - file photo
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Dirk Harrison
A member of the Integrity Commission is of the view that Jamaica's anti-corruption strategies are not working.
Dirk Harrison, Acting Director of Corruption Prosecutions at the Commission, has said Jamaica runs the risk of suffering reputational damage unless decisive action is taken.
Mr. Harrison raised concern about the operations of the Integrity Commission and the Major Organised Crime and Anti-corruption Agency (MOCA) while speaking Wednesday at a crime and corruption forum in New Kingston.
"Let us accept and admit two simple facts: the crime plans and the anti-corruption plans are not working," he said.
"MOCA is yet to be fully operationalised despite promises. The Integrity Commission that I am apart of has not prosecuted a single person in 15 months," he declared.
Mr. Harrison also described as unacceptable the delay in making a permanent appointment in the post in which he now acts, arguing that it was interesting that "a simple administrative matter accounts for the failure of a Director of Corruption Prosecution being fully vested with the powers of that office."
"The person definitely does not have to be me, but work must go on," he admitted.
Broken relationship?
Mr. Harrison further addressed speculation about his relationship with other commissioners of the Integrity Commission, noting that while he is choosing not to "elevate publicly at this time this matter", all he would say is that "some of their accounts are incomplete."
Speculation that all was not well among the commissioners of the Integrity Commission came to the fore following a report by Dirk Harrison, the former Contractor General, into the government's sale of the Rooms on the Beach property.
Harrison’s report stated that the Urban Development Corporation was not able to negotiate freely and from a position of strength in the sale of Rooms on the Beach to Puerto Caribe Properties Limited because of the alleged meddling of government minister Daryl Vaz and others.
The controversy, however, deepened when Harrison’s superiors on the Integrity Commission raised doubts about the credibility of the report in a statement issued on April 30.
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