Jamaica’s Home Speaker resigns amid Integrity Fee controversy

Jamaica Home Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert has tendered her resignation from the publish and as a member of Parliament for Trelawny Southern following costs filed by the Integrity Fee in relation to her statutory declarations for seven years.

On Tuesday, the fee tabled a report in Parliament, which revealed it had opened an investigation in relation to a motorcar that Dalrymple-Philibert had bought by a authorities concession, however that which she didn’t declare in her statutory declarations filings to the Integrity Fee.

All Jamaican public officers and Parliamentarians are required by regulation to submit a declaration of property, liabilities, and revenue yearly to the fee.

The fee’s Director of Complaints Craig Beresford raised issues that Dalrymple-Philibert broke a number of legal guidelines by advantage of failing to reveal her possession of the automobile.

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Within the report, the director of investigation said that he was in possession of a letter of response dated March 29, 2022, from the Home Speaker wherein she had indicated that she didn’t personal the automobile in query: a 2015 Mercedes Benz GLA 250.

Nevertheless, he mentioned proof obtained from Tax Administration Jamaica, Ministry of Finance, Jamaica Customs, and Sagicor Jamaica Restricted, confirmed that the mentioned motorcar was acquired and registered in Dalrymple-Philibert’s title “from 2015 till its divestment in Could 2022.”

The Home Speaker was later slapped with 4 counts of breaching Part 15(1)(b) of the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act, 1973 for making a false assertion in a statutory declaration masking the interval 2015 to 2017, and an extra 4 counts of breaches in relation to Part 43(2)(a) of the Integrity Fee Act, 2017 for making a false assertion in a statutory declaration masking the interval 2018 to 2020.

In Parliament on Tuesday, Dalrymple-Philibert mentioned she “didn’t knowingly misrepresent the place to the Integrity Fee; it was a real oversight.”

Resignation was ‘totally voluntary’

In an announcement on Thursday, she launched an announcement saying: “I preserve to at the present time, that the omission of the automobile was a real oversight on my half. There would have been no allegations in opposition to my title had I included the automobile in my declaration, subsequently, I had no motive to have intentionally omitted it. For the reason that Integrity Fee has determined to cost me criminally for an omission, I’ve thought of the harm this has finished to my repute and have determined to tender my resignation each because the Speaker of the Home of Representatives and Member of Parliament for South Trelawny, with instant impact.”

Dalrymple-Philibert mentioned that her determination was “totally voluntary, and never on the request of anybody,” including that she stays “a loyal and dedicated member and supporter of the Jamaica Labour Social gathering, and extra notably to the Andrew Holness Administration.”

“I sit up for the trial of the matter for which the Integrity Fee has dominated that I be charged, to be concluded in a court docket of regulation somewhat than a Court docket of Public Opinion. As I said within the Home of Consultant on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, I’ve nothing to cover, and I didn’t knowingly mislead the Integrity Fee, it was a real oversight,” the assertion learn.

Dalrymple-Philibert mentioned she is going to proceed to assist her celebration in any manner she will be able to and thanked her constituency for his or her “unwavering assist.”