A Supreme Court judge has found that the Integrity Commission failed in its duty to be candid with the Court in its bid to obtain the personnel files of eight Health Ministry officials.
That’s according to the written judgement on the matter of the Attorney General, Errol Greene, versus Kevon Stephenson and the Integrity Commission.
The ruling also freezes that part of the Commission’s probe into the Jamaica/Cuba Eye Care Programme until a full judicial review is heard.
Chevon Campbell reports.
The Integrity Commission wants the complete employment files of eight current and former officials of the Health Ministry as part of its investigation into contracts awarded under the Jamaica/Cuba Eye Care Programme.
It says it needs them for writing samples, banking details and contact information.
But in her written ruling, Justice Sonia Wint-Blair says the Commission never told the Court what “other files” it was also demanding.
She also says the Commission failed to disclose that, in a related case involving the Spectrum Management Authority, it seized the personnel file of that agency’s Managing Director, who is not under investigation.
The judge says public bodies must come to court with their “cards face up”.
The challenge was brought by the Attorney General and former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Errol Greene, who argue that handing over entire personnel files would breach public officers’ constitutional right to privacy and the Data Protection Act.
Justice Wint-Blair has granted them leave for a full judicial review.
She says whether the Commission’s broad demand is lawful is a question for that hearing.
Until then, the Commission cannot pursue the files, issue fresh notices or summonses to other officers to get them, or probe that aspect of the investigation.
It remains free to investigate other parts of the programme.
The Ministry, meanwhile, must keep the files secure and produce them if the Court orders it.
The ruling also sets out why the Court refused the Commission’s bid to have Greene held in contempt over a radio interview he gave in May.
The judge found that the injunction did not bar him from speaking to the media and that the interview did not affect the files.
The Commission’s own Director of Investigation accepts that the outcome will affect how it deals with every government ministry and department.
The Attorney General and Greene now have 14 days to file their claims, with a first hearing to follow within four weeks.
