Bunting Targets May Start-up of Anti-Corruption Taskforce

National Security Minister, Hon. Peter Bunting, is eyeing a May timeline for the commencement of operations by the proposed multi-agency national anti-corruption taskforce.

The taskforce will, among other things, target for seizure, the proceeds generated from crime, as well as focus on apprehending drug kingpins and other facilitators of illicit activities.

Speaking at the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ) Chairman’s Club Forum breakfast at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Tuesday (March 20), Mr. Bunting said there are a few details, relating to the body, which remained to be finalised, adding that these are expected to be completed in time for the May start.

The Minister explained that the taskforce will be dissimilar in composition and focus to the “typical” unit within the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), pointing out that it will be “elite”.

“This is not a street level operation. This is a much more cerebral-type activity,  analysts, people who are attorneys, forensic accountants, really tracing the money…doing a lot more work like what a banker or an accountant would do,” he explained.

Stressing that the rationale behind the taskforce’s establishment is to “strike” at the root of crime by targeting the illicit proceeds thereby “taking the profits” out of it,

Mr. Bunting assured that “we really believe that if we can attack crime at this level,…the fuel for a lot of the street-level crime, will be dried up”.  

By Douglas McIntosh, JIS Reporter