The Integrity Commission, IC, has ruled that Member of Parliament for South Central St. Catherine, Dr. Andrew Wheatley, be charged for illicit enrichment.
This follows an investigation into Dr. Wheatley’s earnings, acquisition of assets and sale of assets over the period December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2022.
There are three more charges the IC says it will lay against Dr. Wheatley based on its investigation covering the nine-year period.
The details of the investigation are captured in an 89 page report prepared by the IC and tabled in the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon.
George Davis reports.
Dr. Andrew O’Brien Wheatley returned to Andrew Holness’ Cabinet less than a year ago. Wednesday, September 17, 2025, as Minister without portfolio in charge of Science, Technology and Special Projects.
Before that, the 53-year-old spent seven years on the backbench after resigning as Minister of Energy in July 2018, owing to allegations of corruption and nepotism at the state-owned oil refinery Petrojam.
In that matter, Dr. Wheatley was never charged with any offence.
Nor was any claim of misconduct even brought against him.
His battle then was to clear his name of speculation and suspicion in the public square.
Back then, he wasn’t even required to defend himself in a court of law.
But this is a fight of an altogether different kind.
This time, the Integrity Commission has ruled that he should answer four charges relating to his income and assets between December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2022.
The rulings form the crucial segment of a letter sent to the Houses of Parliament on June 11 this year by Executive Director of the IC, Craig Beresford.
So what are the four charges?
Charge one: Knowingly making a false statement in a statutory declaration. That charge, the IC says, is a breach of the Parliamentary Integrity of Members Act.
Charge two: Knowingly making a false statement in a statutory declaration. That charge, the IC says, is a breach of the Integrity Commission Act.
Charge three: Failing, without reasonable cause, to provide any information as the Director of Information and Complaints may require. That charge, the IC says, is a breach of the Integrity Commission Act.
Charge four: Illicit enrichment. That charge, the IC says, is a breach of the Corruption Prevention Act.
So, what has caused the IC to recommend these charges?
Well, the commission says when it did its tabulation of Dr. Wheatley’s statutory declarations and it’s investigations for the nine-year period, it established that Dr. Wheatley had total income of $187 million.
Broken out, this total income comprised of $4.8 million as his opening bank account balance, $78.27-million in loans, $18.94 million in investments, 6.04 million for insurance policies, 51.38 million in salary and allowances, $542,000 for interest on accounts, and 8.69 million for rental income.
The IC’s tabulation, in table 4 on page 51 of its report, puts that total at $187,287,000.
However, when our news centre tallied the numbers from that table ourselves, we found an error. The total income was $168.68 million.
So it seems, from the numbers presented, that the IC has made a mistake in its calculation.
The actual total of Dr. Wheatley’s income is $18.6 million less than the figure published in its report.
The IC says it tabulated Dr. Wheatley’s assets acquired and other expenditure to be in the amount of $351.53 million.
Broken out, that figure is made up of $41.88 million as the closing balance in his bank account, 70.67 million for loan repayment, 3.7 million for investments, 48.4 million for properties acquired, 10.49 million for motor vehicles acquired and 176 million for expenses.
When we double checked the figures that total is indeed correct.
So when the IC subtracted the total sum of Dr. Wheatley’s income from the total sum of his assets acquired and sold over the nine year period, it came up with a figure of $164.25 million.
And it’s that number, which the IC says represents the value of Dr. Wheatley’s assets over the nine year period for which he has failed to provide sufficient evidence to support.
But if you adjust the figure for what appears to be the IC’s error in calculation, then the total of the illicit enrichment is $182.85 million.
The IC was not done with Dr. Wheatley.
It recommended that the Commissioner General of Tax Administration Jamaica look into the matter concerning one of Dr. Wheatley’s companies, Western Medical.
According to the IC, Western Medical filed nil tax returns for the years 2011 and 2012, despite Dr. Wheatley providing evidence that the company earned between $15 million and $26 million over those two years.
