Samuda, Walker test good governance standards

THE EDITOR, Sir: PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness is too silent on the issues of governance plaguing his administration.

Sufficient for now will be the Karl Samuda grass conflict of interest and Danville Walker’s continued compromising presence on national boards despite his conviction on the charge of breaking the law in respect of not complying with requests of the Office of the Contractor General, an anti-corruption organisation.

Karl Samuda, the agriculture minister, benefited from a government project that falls under his portfolio responsibility. That directly goes against the 2002 ministry paper that speaks to the expectations of a Cabinet minister.

That Samuda arrogantly paid for it and waved the receipt in Parliament does not give him a pass on the test of good governance. In fact, he tries to slap Jamaicans in the face by parading the receipt to make use of the cultural practice of saying, ‘Mi pay mi money, so low mi.’

Then we have Danville Walker.

He sits on several state boards, including the Jamaica Customs Agency. He was convicted recently for failing to honour an OCG request when he was head of Customs. Whether he is appealing, as the Senate president said in his lecture of Lambert Brown, is of no moment.

There was a chorus of calls from many civil-society groups regarding Richard Azan. Why should Danville Walker be treated differently?

If Holness is saying that he’s waiting until the OCG’s probe is finished to determine action, he should say so rather than pretend that he does not smell the stench! MARLON WILLIAMS nolramwilly@gmail.com