Jamaica: PM Golding concerned Justice System will Collapse

UNCLAS KINGSTON 000702

STATE FOR INL/LP NBozzolo, KBrown, INL/C WHA/CAR KHarne
USAID for DAA/LAC TCornick

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: SNAR AFIN PREL ASEC SOCI KCOR KCRM JM XL

SUBJECT: Jamaica: PM Golding concerned Justice System will Collapse


1. (SBU) Summary: Prime Minister Bruce Golding, was briefed on a
USAID-sponsored assessment of the impact of Corruption in Jamaica on
July 29. Golding has asked for a follow on meeting in three weeks
with principal stakeholders, namely Customs, Police, Finance,
National Security, Attorney and Solicitor Generals to examine the
specific areas of concern identified by the USAID-sponsored final
report. In the interim, Post's Expanded Law Enforcement Working
Group will meet to review and discuss the recommendations of the
USAID-sponsored corruption assessment with a view to presenting
potential areas for providing USG assistance to the GOJ and its
efforts to fight crime and corruption. End Summary.

Background


2. (SBU) The USAID-sponsored corruption assessment provided the
Ambassador, DCM and Expanded Law Enforcement Working Group (DEA,
ICE, NAS, P/E, RSO, and USMS) with an interim briefing of its
findings on July 9. Based on her view that it was critical for our
international partners to also have the benefit of the team's
conclusions, Ambassador Johnson arranged a similar briefing with the
UK and Canadian High Commissioners. While it is well known that
corruption is a problem at all levels in Jamaican Society, we were
collectively troubled enough with the team's conclusions and their
sense that something BIG needs to happen soon or the current
government will lose public support, that Ambassador Johnson
arranged a follow on meeting with Prime Minister Golding on July 29.
USAID Acting Mission Director and NAS Director participated in the
assessment de-brief with the Prime Minister.


3. (SBU) The USAID-sponsored team was made of up two U.S. members of
Management Systems International (MSI),and one Jamaican partner,
Dr. Trevor Munroe, former Senator and well-respected Professor at
the University of the West Indies. The team met with a broad range
of stakeholders, including key Cabinet members (Security, Justice,
Finance),as well as the Commissioners of Customs and Police, the
Chief Justice, Director of the Office of Public Prosecution (DPP)
and Civil Society.


4. (SBU) The following is a list of some broad conclusions that they
shared with the Prime Minister:

-- for the first time Jamaica has a handful of key people in
positions of power to do something about corruption (Commissioners
of Customs, Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police for
Anti-Corruption, DPP, Chief Justice, Ministers of Finance, Justice
and National Security). The PM supported the recommendation from
USAID's Anti-Corruption assessment team to convene a series of
'National Integrity Roundtable' through University of West Indies
Center for Governance;

--these key personnel understand the danger they are in if they act,
yet, they are fearless;

-- fearless as they may be, they all feel isolated, and are seeking
political leadership from the Prime Minister;

-- the public at large understands that political, large-scale
corruption is CORRUPTION, but does not make the connection that
their actions, such as to bribe a police officer to get out of a
traffic ticket, actually are CORRUPTION, and that these numerous
acts of petty corruption help to breed an environment where
corruption is tolerated at all levels;

--a need for public engagement on corruption (not top-down media
campaigns) but community-focused programs that people relate to and
support;

-- to not lose the confidence of the Jamaican public and the above
key crime fighting personnel, the government has to go after the
"Big Fish," a large business, a high-ranking police officer, a
politician, and it cannot be politically motivated, e.g., just
opposition members. (Note: In a step toward actualization of this
conclusion, on July 31 senior Assistant Superintendent of Police
Harry "Bungles" Daley was arrested in a "sting" operation and
charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act; Post will
provide further report via septel.)


5. (SBU) Prime Minister Golding was very receptive to the comments
made by the team. He admitted that the weakest link for the whole
country is its justice system -"Our criminal justice system is in
danger of collapsing." He is deeply aware of the problems his
government faces with corruption and shared anecdotes about his own
personal interventions over the last nine months of his tenure as
Prime Minister: direct intervention to prevent corruption in
contracting; counseling of party members regarding public
corruption; and, having to get personally involved in witness
protection cases to gain agreement from the witness to testify.

6. (SBU) He also outlined some of the hurdles that the government
continues to face. One example Golding cited had to do with
corruption in public contracts. In 2007, Golding's government
tightened up the issuance of public contracts to prevent past
practices of the granting of contracts to criminal dons. Golding
told the team about one contract for USD $12-15 million that was let
through a properly run competitive process. However, in classic
mafia style, on the contractor's first day on the job, the local Don
showed up to explain "how things really work in Jamaica, and
replaced the contractor with his people." The contractor decided
that it was not worth his life or the future of his business to
protest and so he simply privately sub-contracted all the work to
the Don, retaining all the liability for himself. The sub-contract
went "unnoticed," until Golding himself visited the job site and saw
"familiar faces" among the workers and started asking questions.


7. (SBU) Golding was engaged during the presentation and interrupted
the team members throughout peppering them with questions and
interjecting anecdotes of his own, he clearly knows of all the
problems outlined. His comments and many questions were focused on
finding short-term politically viable solutions. He has requested a
follow-up meeting with the Attorney General and Solicitor General to
discuss constitutional ways in which the Government of Jamaica can
unshackle its law enforcement and prosecutorial staff to better
fight crime and corruption. NAS will work closely with USAID to
prepare concrete proposals for this follow-on meeting.


JOHNSON