Chamber block ‘nonsense’ - Former IC chairs dismisses Gordon House stance as Opposition demands unholstering of FLA report 

The Opposition is demanding the tabling tomorrow of an Integrity Commission (IC) investigation into alleged corruption and irregularities at the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), six weeks after the IC submitted the report to Parliament.

Mark Golding, the leader of the Opposition, wrote to Speaker of the House of Representatives Juliet Holness after the parliamentary leadership signalled that the report was not tabled due to judicial proceedings and that the matter was sub judice.

The gun regulator has filed a challenge to the IC report in the Supreme Court.

At the same time, retired Justice Seymour Panton, a former chairman of the Integrity Commission, has described as “nonsense” the claim by the House of Representatives that it has not tabled the report for the judicial proceedings.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the Parliament should table the report. It’s as simple as that – they should table the report. I do not see where there is any bar to the report being tabled,” Panton contended.

“We need to remember what happened in the matter of Mr [Ian] Hayles, where for years the report was not tabled, and that was wrong,” Panton insisted.

The no-nonsense former president of the Court of Appeal maintained that there was nothing to prevent the report from being laid on the table of the House.

Panton, parting with a word of caution, added: “In all our public activities, we should stay far away from this matter of secrecy.”

In his letter to the Speaker, Golding charged that the crux of the matter at hand was that the Integrity Commission Act requires this report to be tabled, a vital step which is essential to achieving the objectives of the act.

He argued that unless the court has made an order preventing the tabling of the report, “this report should be tabled immediately”.

“As leader of the Opposition, it is therefore my duty to demand the tabling of this report at the next meeting of the House,” Golding said in his May 17 letter, a copy of which The Gleaner has seen.

“I trust that, as Speaker of the House, you will also do your duty by ensuring that this happens next Tuesday afternoon [tomorrow],” he said.

Golding said he was alarmed by a Sunday Gleaner report indicating that the IC submitted a report on the FLA to Parliament on March 30 this year, but it was yet to be tabled.

The Gleaner has seen a copy of a letter that Parliament received advising it of the report. It described the report as covering “allegations of corruption, impropriety, and irregularities in the grant, variation and revocation of firearm licences and storage of firearms and ammunition at the Firearm Licensing Authority”.

Based on that letter, said Golding, this investigative report includes matters of great national importance. He cautioned that the protracted non-disclosure of the report was “a very serious and dangerous matter”.

Noting that the FLA was not a private citizen, Golding reasoned that the firearm licensing agency was a public body with statutory responsibility for serious functions.

“There is therefore clearly a strong public interest in exposing and addressing any impropriety or irregularities affecting the FLA’s operations,” he added.

With the IC’s main statutory purpose being to ensure transparency and accountability in public affairs as a key pillar in the fight against corruption, Golding warned that it would be inimical to the pursuit of that fundamental objective for a public body like the FLA, merely by filing court proceedings applying for judicial review, to be able to cast a cloak of silence over an investigative report.

He said the investigative report, based on the IC law, was intended for parliamentarians, the media and the wider society to have prompt access via the expeditious tabling in Parliament.

“The existence of court proceedings cannot be a lawful or proper basis for the continuing non-disclosure of this report.”

In this context, it is relevant to note that the courts have recognised that public discourse and criticism are vital to a democratic society, and that public bodies are expected to endure scrutiny rather than use the courts to defeat transparency, undermine accountability and silence critics, the Opposition leader observed. Pointing to the case of Derbyshire County Council v Times Newspapers, Golding said this was why the courts have determined that allowing public authorities to sue for damage to their "governing or administrative reputation" would severely stifle public opinion, which the courts will not countenance.

The IC confirmed to The Gleaner last Tuesday that a report had been submitted to Parliament on March 30, 2026 and was formally received and signed for at 1:02 p.m. that day.

The Gleaner has seen a copy of a letter that Parliament received advising it of the report.

The letter is signed by Craig Beresford, executive director of the IC, and addressed to House Speaker and Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, and copied to Clerk to the Houses of Parliament Colleen Lowe.

Gordon House, in a response to The Gleaner last Tuesday, did not confirm or deny that it held a report, but acknowledged awareness of legal proceedings when asked about whether it had received the document, and, if so, why it had not been tabled.

“The Houses of Parliament are aware of correspondence from attorneys-at-law acting on behalf of the Firearm Licensing Authority in connection with the above-mentioned matter,” the statement read.

It stated that the correspondence from FLA’s lawyers “brought to our attention that proceedings are currently before the Supreme Court of Jamaica, including an application for judicial review, injunctive relief, and related orders pertaining to a report prepared by the Integrity Commission.

“In light of those active judicial proceedings, the matter is presently sub judice, and it would be inappropriate for the Houses of Parliament to make any substantive comment or take any action in respect of the report while the matter remains before the court,” Gordon House said. editorial@gleanerjm.com