Questionable Conduct: The Jamaican Political Reality

The rub of the Horne Report is the debt collection; that it is somehow critical that " all of the Comrades who collected funds from private sector and other entities, to make a full, transparent, and confidential account of all of the funds  received to the Treasury and the Officers of the Party" Given the lack of trust in both the Treasurer and the General Secretary, as noted by party historian Arnold "Scree" Bertram , there is no chance that the call would have been heeded. Furthermore, Horne stated that senior members were involved in the diversion of funds intended for the Party, then it would be safe to assume that some of those implicated would be part of the officer core. What would be the sanctions or incentives to those implicated to turn over the funds in a "full, transparent, and confidential account"? Is there an inherent conflict/tension between "transparency" and "confidentiality"? The stated purpose of this exerc...

 PNP Treasurer, Norman Washington Horne, made a report to the party's NEC which was "leaked" to the media. Horne's report identified challenges faced by the treasury which in his view played a critical role in the  2016 election defeat. These were: Fragmented political leadership, multiple non-cohesive and disjointed campaigns being run by distinct groupings and individual members of the party; Senior members in the government were actively sourcing funds from the private sector for the sole benefit of their personal campaigns; Contributions earmarked for the Treasury were made to senior party members who neither reported or accounted in full, or even in part, for receipt of those donations; The decision not to debate exacerbated the difficulty in raising funds resulting in "a last minute cash investment and infusion into the JLP."  In sum "there was not one central bank but several  banks; some of which had more resources than the Treasury....

The alerting of Christopher "Dudus" Coke to the imminent extradition request by the United States has featured in two COE; firstly in the Manatt COE and now the Tivoli COE. Regrettably, not much light has been shed, even though Manatt COE generated much heat on the topic. The Tivoli COE  failed to further the investigation and therefore added nothing to the pool of information already in the public space. Garnett Roper writing in The Gleaner, Sunday, August 14, 2016 noted that there is no mechanism to hold those of the political class accountable for abuse of power, bad governance and "announcements that tipped off Coke so that Tivoli could be armed and barricaded and 300 gunmen recruited to declare war on the Jamaican state". The "tipping off" formed the basis of ToR (N) and ToR (O) and was disposed of in Chapter 12.[See our posts: Tivoli COE: Diddly Squat (1) and Tivoli COE: Diddly Squat (2) ] Nevertheless, there is a rather curious treatment of th...

Part 2 of Chapter 12  of the Report has not done diddly squat to clarify "whether copies of affidavits and other confidential supporting documents attached to or related to the request for extradition of Christopher Coke were found in coke's offices, and the circumstances under which and purposes for which those documents came to be there." ToR (O) The evidence is that a copy of what appeared to be Extradition papers ( in a rolled up state) was found by a member of the Engineers, JDF, and handed over to a police officer who has since emigrated  after resigning from the JCF.   The said papers could not be found. The finding JDF officer could not identify the contents of the papers which were found in a drawer. " It said something like " The Federal Grand Jury of New York" and Coke's name was mentioned.. I recall the papers had been rolled up. We had to unroll it...    It may have been more than one sheet."   Findings 12.29 "Neverthel...

Chapter 12 of the Report of the Western Kinston Commission of Enquiry is a complete waste of time and added nothing to the pool of information already in the public space. Simply put, it is "diddly squat". Chapter 12 purports to address (i) the issue of any communication between any official of the GOJ and Christopher Coke during the period 24 August 2009 to June 2010; and (ii) matters concerning the search for and discovery of documents at Coke's offices by the security forces. See our post " Tivoli COE: Diddly Squat (2)"                                     GOJ Officials Communicating with Coke " 12.15   On the evidence adduced to the Commission of Enquiry ,we find that there was no direct communication during the period 24 August 2009 and May 2010 between Christopher Coke and any official of the Government of Jamaica. The evidence of Coke being "tipped off" on 24 August 2009 after the H...

The Commissioners have in their report highlighted the glaring fact that the enquiry was severely hampered by the absence of pertinent reports from the intelligence units of the security forces which were operative during the May 2010 debacle. Chapter 13 : "The circumstances under which the fugitive Christopher "Dudus" Coke managed to elude arrest during and after the operation by the security forces of Jamaica in Tivoli Gardens and related areas in May 2010, and the circumstances of his capture," ToR (P) made the telling admission in its Introduction "31.1   The sources of information and evidential foundations of this Chapter are largely based on testimony of members of the security forces. We received no direct evidence from the Heads of Intelligence units or any self-acknowledged Intelligence units or analysts except for DCP Hinds . However, we were provided with opinions or assessments, formed by officers in light of the Intelligence reports supplied t...

The Report of The West Kingston Commission of Enquiry 2016 has been made public. There has been widespread discussion in the public space as to the value-added of this enquiry. The Gleaner, July 12,2016 reported that " The Government has put the full cost of the enquiry about $450.8m" . The cost of 'high-powered" lawyers representing state agencies has gained   notorious attention . The Commission invited members of the public to submit proposals which would be taken into consideration in its Report. A list of the persons who submitted Memoranda of Recommendations is published in Appendix 4. It would have been useful if the public was afforded easy access to such memoranda which may, or may not, have found favour with the Commissioners. Below is mine which was submitted on January 6, 2016:                                       Subject: Proposed Recommendations from the Publ...

The Tivoli COE was mandated to have its public hearings conducted within a 3-month time period. The Commissioners exceeded this time span and did so without seeking the appropriate extension from the Governor- General. Two concerns come readily to mind:  Having ignored the protocol, what is the legal status of the public hearings conducted after the stipulated time span had expired? and  What were the circumstances that accounted for the overrun and where such unforeseen and/or unavoidable ? i) We are not in a position to state definitively if the overrun has altered the legal status of the public hearings conducted after the stipulated 3-month. Having not sought or obtained the extension, then it would seem that an argument could be made that the public hearings conducted after the expiry of the mandate would have no legal standing. Hence, the Commissioners would be barred from taking into their consideration any evidence given after the expired date. Consequently...

The Terms Of Reference Of The West Kingston Commission of Enquiry mandates the enquiry into inter alia: “(n) whether there was any direct or indirect communication between the fugitive  Christopher “Dudus” Coke, and any Jamaican Government Official (or Officials) or  any agent thereof, during the period between when the Request for Extradition was  first communicated to the Jamaican Government or any of its agents or officials  and when the fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke was arrested;  and if so, by which  Officials and or agents thereof, the nature of any or all such communications, by  what means and for what purposes.” No evidence has been adduced before the COE from which the inference could be made that any official of the Government of Jamaica directly or indirectly contacted Christopher “Dudus” Coke regarding the imminent request for his extradition. ( See our Tivoli COE: Who tipped off Dudus? ) Both the then Minister of National...

Christopher “Dudus” Coke was captured on June 22, 2010. The public was given scarcely any details on the operation. The published photograph of Coke wearing a female wig —the camouflage Coke was alleged to having been wearing in the company of Reverend Al Miller,drew substantial public (derisive?) commentary. The testimony of CDS, Major General Stewart Saunders before the Western Kingston Commission of Enquiry on June 23, 2015 gives some insight into the capture: Intelligence reports had placed Coke in St Ann and a number of operations had been launched to capture him. The reports were unable to verify his exact location. On June 22,2010 Coke left St. Ann. Intelligence resources picked up Coke somewhere in the region of Ewarton, Bog Walk entering the Gorge. Reports also indicated that Coke was in the company of Rev. Al Miller and that he was on his way to the US Embassy in Kingston. Interestingly, it was the Chairman himself who examined the Major General on the circumstances...

From the evidence adduced at the Western Kingston Commission of Enquiry there was no joint Police-Military operation in May 2010 with the prime purpose of executing the arrest warrant for Christopher “Dudus” Coke. Officially, the warrant for the arrest of Coke was the remit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). However, given the very limited capabilities of the JCF, the assistance of the Jamaica Defence (JDF) was critical to any such operation, even more so given the influence and resources of the Don in question. So in all operations even a token presence of a member of the JCF was mandatory outside of a declared state of emergency. In the latter case the army is given overwhelming police powers, chief among which is the power to arrest. Hence under a declared state of emergency army units need not have a member of the JCF present. It is against this background that the operation to capture Coke must be assessed. • The surveillance party was composed of resources from t...

              Date: August 24, 2009 Time Early afternoon Place: Vale Royal Topic: The Extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke Participants: Prime Minister, Hon. Bruce Golding                      Chief Defence Staff, Major General Stewart Saunders                     Commissioner of Police, Rear Adm. Hardley Lewin Only PM and the CDS gave testimony at the Tivoli COE. No reason was given for the omission of the COP. A review of the verbatim notes reveal some very interesting anomalies which will have to be resolved in the Commission’s Report. For example: i) Duration: PM Golding testified that the meeting lasted “no more than five minutes" ; whereas the CDS said that “.. we spoke with the PM for about fifteen or twenty minutes”.  Lewin elsewhere has given the impression that the meeting was unexpectedly brief: “So the PM says”...

            Apart from making a phone call to Prime Mister Bruce Golding informing him that COP Hardley Lewin and CDS Major General Stuart Saunders was in his company and had certain information which would be on interest to him, what else did Minister of National Security, Hon. Dwight Nelson, do in respect of the extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke? It is very difficult to avoid the answer: “Next to nothing”. • There is no evidence before the Tivoli COE from which one could even reasonably infer that Nelson made another phone call concerning the impending request. • Minister Nelson did not accompany the COP and the CDS to the Prime Minister and did not discuss with either of the heads of the security forces or the Prime Minister what took place at that meeting. • The Minister admitted that he absolutely did not have any responsibility in the extradition matters. • At no stage did the Minister of National Security get involved. • Nelson h...

We have had the opportunity to scrutinize the verbatim notes of the testimony given before the Tivoli COE by the then Commissioner of Police (COP) Owen Ellington.We are somewhat bewildered by some of the revelations made to the COE. Below are some of the most disconcerting: Ellington acted as COP between November 7, 2009 to early April 2010 when he assumed the substantive position until retirement  in 2014. Before that he was DCP in charge of Operations.Yet he only became aware of the request pending for the extradition of Christopher "Dudus" Coke via media reports and knew nothing of any "soft detention " consideration. On May 17, 2010 Ellington heard of the intention of the AG to sign the Authourity to Proceed via the national public broadcast made by then Prime Minister Bruce Golding.On hearing such news the COP-- who had been planning with the CDS Major General Stuart Saunders from mid November or early December 2009--did not immediately make contact with ...

The Report of the Tivoli COE is expected around mid-April , some two (2) months after the end of the public hearings. Those public hearings took place over some fourteen (14) calendar months. The Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Western Kingston Commission of Enquiry states iner alia: “ 2. The Commission shall use its best efforts to conclude its enquiry within three (3) months after it commences, and shall make a full and faithful report on and recommendations concerning the aforesaid matters, and transmit the same to His Excellency the Most Honourable Governor General, within two (2) months after concluding its enquiry.”  Obviously there was the expectation that the public hearing would have lasted some three (3) consecutive calendar months from the date of commencement baring any unavoidable and unforeseeable delays. Similarly the Report should be submitted to the Governor- General within two (2 ) consecutive calendar months of concluding of its enquiry, baring any u...