PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness has lost his bid to force the Integrity Commission (IC) to certify his 2022 and 2023 statutory declarations, but has been given the go-ahead to seek the court’s authority in getting the IC’s investigative report and special report invalidated. Justice Althea Jarrett last Friday granted the prime minister and his three companies – Imperium Investments Holdings Limited (IIHL), Positive Media Solutions Limited (PMSL), and Positive Jamaica Foundation Limited (PJFL) – permission for a judicial review claim against the respondents – the director of investigation Kevon Stephenson and the Integrity Commission itself. The commission’s director of information and complaints (DIC), Craig Beresford, was initially a respondent. However, the judge found that he had already fulfilled his duties and “it would be an exercise in futility to order the DIC to do what, on his unchallenged evidence, he has already done”. THE MONTHLY GLEANER | DECEMBER 12 - JANUARY 11, 2025 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS MISSED 7 Priced below $400, 000 3 Bedrooms/2 Bathrooms Loads of upgrades!!! ************************* Infiniti Realty, Inc. Agent ID 3096939 954-839-4112 dalmadgeann@gmail.com New Construction – FLORIDA, USA. [NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED] Prime Minister Andrew Holness Dr. Delroy Fray AG GUEST GUEST ‘50 doctors doing the work of 350’ AMID A strike by Jamaica’s junior doctors on Monday to protest compensation issues, Dr Delroy Fray warned that western public hospitals would not be able to cope with the resulting disruptions for more than 24 hours. But the doctors returned to work at 6 p.m. on Monday following a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Labour. Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA) president, Dr Renee Badroe, told The Gleaner that a meeting was planned for Tuesday at which time her association would meet with officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and the Ministry of Health to address the concerns raised by the doctors. Before the agreement to go back to work, Fray, the clinical coordinator at the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), shared a grim outlook in an interview with The Gleaner as the islandwide sickout of junior doctors – supported by more than 350 in western Jamaica – severely strained hospital operations. The action left approximately 50 consultants scrambling to fill the gaps in the west. Court refuses to compel IC to approve PM’s financials Beverly Hills brouhaha -PM, his business partner at odds with IC over report on alleged building permit breach Bill to replace British monarch tabled JAMAICA IS one step closer to becoming a republic and moving away from the British monarchy after the Government introduced a bill in Parliament to replace King Charles with a ceremonial Jamaican president as the island’s head of State. “The tabling of the bill marks the greatest progress made so far in our effort to reform the Constitution of Jamaica to achieve the national goals of having a Jamaican as head of state instead of the hereditary British monarch and also having our supreme law taken out from under the cloak of the imperial Order in Council and placed in proper form,” said Marlene Malahoo Forte, the constitutional affairs minister, who tabled the historic bill on Tuesday. Alongside the republic transition, the bill proposes to entrench the Electoral Commission of Jamaica in the Constitution, incorporate national symbols and emblems, clarify Jamaican citizenship criteria, and strengthen constitutional amendment procedures. But approval for the law faces hurdles as the Government and Opposition disagree over Jamaica’s final court. The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has insisted that the British monarch and the Privy Council should be removed at the same time to make a full cutting of colonial ties with the Great Britain, from whom Jamaica gained Independence in 1962. However, the Government has argued that there is no consensus on the issue and the proposed replacement with the Caribbean Court of Justice. It also said a decision on the court is set for a later phase in the reform process. American man charged over guns, 200 rounds of ammo found in luggage at airport JAMAICA’S SINGLE anti-corruption body has found that a Beverly Hills town house constructed by Estatebridge, a company linked to Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his business partner Norman Brown, has breached the building permit issued by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC). The Integrity Commission (IC) says the development has four 4-bedroom town houses instead of four 2-bedroom town houses, as approved by the KSAMC. The property is located at 2 Weycliffe Close, Beverly Hills, Kingston 6. Brown is the chairman of one of Jamaica’s largest public bodies, the Urban Development Corporation, as well as the Housing Corporation of Jamaica which both fall under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation that is headed by the prime minister. An IC report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday concluded that the breaches were deliberate and that the directors of Estatebridge are liable. The directors of the company are Brown, Sydjea Anderson and Adam Holness, the son of the prime minister. Prime Minister Holness is the sole director and shareholder of Imperium Investments Holding Limited, a company which has shares in Estatebridge. A 42-year-old man of a Florida address in the United States was arrested at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James, last Friday after two dozen firearms, some dismantled, and 200 rounds of ammunition were allegedly found in his luggage. Shaun Duncan, a commercial driver from Davenport, Florida, has since been charged with trafficking prohibited weapons, possession of prohibited weapons, dealing in prohibited weapons, and stockpiling prohibited weapons. His court date is yet to be finalised.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUzNTI=