In a terse response, the government minister continued: “I, therefore, crave the indulgence of the Honourable House in allowing for that process to be completed and the outcome presented to the Parliament.” Montague told members of the Lower House that “the subject matter of the question is being reviewed by the Integrity Commission, which is a commission of Parliament”. Munroe said that this re-emphasises the necessity to have Section 53 (3), dubbed the gag clause, amended so that the public could be informed that an investigation was under way. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. “It is in breach of any principle of the sovereignty of the people that a minister should be privileged in respect of information that is undoubtedly a matter of public interest,” Munroe told The Gleaner last evening. It is not known how Montague obtained the information, but head of the National Integrity Action, Professor Trevor Munroe, said it was unacceptable that any government minister should be aware of investigations being carried out by the Integrity Commission while the Jamaican people were kept in the dark.
This raised eyebrows as lawmakers in 2017 passed a controversial clause in the Integrity Commission Act that gagged the corruption watchdog from announcing an investigation into alleged acts of corruption. Robert Montague, the transport and mining minister who was facing a litany of questions in Parliament on the issue, divulged that the country's single anti-corruption body was conducting a probe into the matter. Speaker of the House of Representatives Marisa Dalrymple Philibert yesterday shut down responses to a string of questions posed by the parliamentary Opposition surrounding the Airports Authority of Jamaica's (AAJ) nearly half a billion-dollar investment in start-up company, FirstRock Capital Holdings, in breach of Government regulations.
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