Opposition Leader Mark Golding says he does not believe that members of the Public Service Commission (PSC) “sufficiently” informed themselves before recommending accountant Dennis Chung to head the Financial Investigations Division (FID).
However, the Government has pushed back at this assertion, saying that the appointment was in keeping with the established process and lauding Chung as someone who excelled at everything that he has done.
The four-member PSC was established to provide for an independent and impartial body tasked with handling the appointment, removal, and exercise of disciplinary control for public officers, according to its website.
Chung’s appointment as chief technical director of the FID takes effect on June 2, the finance ministry announced yesterday.
The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has warned that there will be “actions all over Jamaica” if Chung’s appointment is not rescinded in 72 hours.
Information Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon insisted yesterday that she “has confidence” in the team that conducts interviews and selects individuals.
“It is a process. No one just wakes up and a minister says, ‘Here is a job for you’. It cannot work like that,” Morris Dixon said during a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House yesterday.
However, Golding said that he did not believe that members of the commission sufficiently informed themselves about some of the public utterances made by Chung related to two high-profile financial investigations currently being undertaken by the FID.
These include the alleged multibillion-dollar fraud at the investment firm Stocks & Securities Limited and the controversial report on the finances of Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, which was referred to the FID by the Integrity Commission last September.
“I cannot believe that had they been thorough in looking at this issue, and seeing what his pronouncements had been publicly on these matters, that they would have recommended him,” Golding said during a press conference at the PNP’s St Andrew headquarters yesterday.
“I think that they have gone down the wrong path and chosen somebody who is manifestly inappropriate for this position. I don’t know on what basis they thought otherwise,” he said.
Yesterday, anti-corruption campaigners National Integrity Action (NIA) and Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) also raised concerns, particularly about the transparency of the appointment.
JAMP questioned Chung’s qualification for the post.
It noted that while he is a qualified chartered accountant, “there are no known indications” of prior experience in complex forensic investigations involving politically exposed persons, leading or managing law enforcement or financial crime teams, working in anti-money laundering or asset recovery fields, or navigating cross-border mutual legal assistance or Financial Action Task Force (FATF)/Egmont standards.
For its part, NIA said while Chung’s dedication to service and Jamaica is unquestionable, his previous statements on the Integrity Commission’s report raise legitimate questions regarding his objectivity.
