ATTORNEY-GENERAL Senator A.J. Nicholson has criticised sections of a Jamaica Labour Party-commissioned Special Task Force Report on Crime that suggests corruption is rife among the local judiciary.
The report, which was made public last Monday, contains suggestions by a committee headed by former Police Commissioner, Colonel Trevor MacMillan.
According to Mr. Nicholson, it is a "searing assertion regarding the integrity of Jamaica's judiciary."
In a letter to Colonel Mac-Millan, Mr. Nicholson said: "No corrupt practice concerning the judiciary is identified by your team, even as you sought to enumerate, 'some corrupt practices that have become endemic' in the Jamaica Constabulary Force'."
The statement was in response to Section 1.1.3 in the report which stated " ... There is general consensus that Jamaica suffers from endemic corruption and that this has been spreading throughout the system - and has become institutionalised in the police force, is evident in the Department of Corrections and even in the judiciary."
Mr. Nicholson further noted that 'The Roadmap to Improving the Justice System,' makes no mention of how to address this "endemic corruption."
The Senator stated that the report cannot be taken seriously unless particulars regarding the assertions made in the report are provided. He says Colonel MacMillan must advise the public on this matter or provide the information to the Judicial Services Commission.
"The judiciary is too foundational an institution for such a naked broadside to be made without being justified in your report itself, concerning a claim which, according to your team, enjoys 'general consensus'," the Senator wrote.
