A sitting Jamaican Member of Parliament is set to return for questioning before the national legislature’s Ethics Committee, after new public disclosures contradicted closed-door testimony he gave earlier this year that led to the House granting him an exemption from further scrutiny. The development, which has reopened a case many observers considered closed, was finalized during the committee’s second official meeting this session on Wednesday.
The controversy at the heart of the recall traces back to a damning audit report from Jamaica’s auditor general, which investigated questionable procurement and import practices at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). The report found that the public teaching hospital improperly leveraged its tax-exempt legal status to clear imported goods on behalf of four private sector entities, resulting in an estimated $23.1 million in lost public revenue. One of the private companies at the center of the audit findings is JACDEN, which lists St Andrew East Central MP Dennis Gordon, a member of the opposition People’s National Party, as a principal partner.
Gordon first appeared before the Ethics Committee for a closed-door hearing on February 4, and the House of Representatives subsequently voted to grant him an exemption from further disciplinary or investigative action. That decision has now been thrown into question, after new information that has entered the public domain appears to contradict key details Gordon provided during his initial private testimony.
Committee chair Marlene Malahoo Forte outlined the panel’s current position in remarks following Wednesday’s vote, emphasizing that the body is not moving immediately to reverse the House’s original exemption decision. Instead, the core question now before the committee is whether the information the original recommendation relied on was accurate, she explained.
The push for renewed scrutiny came from St Andrew West Rural MP Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, who called for a fresh review after cross-referencing the minutes of February’s closed meeting with subsequent public disclosures. Cuthbert-Flynn’s intervention effectively reopened a case that was widely considered settled after the House approved the exemption earlier this year.
Not all committee members supported moving forward with the recall during Wednesday’s discussion. St Elizabeth South Eastern MP Franklyn Witter raised procedural questions about whether the committee had the authority to revisit a matter that the full House had already formally acted on, casting doubt on whether revisiting the exemption after it was approved was procedurally sound.
Malahoo Forte pushed back on the need for procedural or legal hurdles, framing the current issue as a question of fact rather than a legal dispute. She argued that if new public information directly contradicts testimony Gordon gave during his first appearance, the only appropriate step is to give the MP an opportunity to respond and clarify the inconsistencies, noting that this adheres to the core principle of natural justice.
“You do not make any binding decision affecting any person without first giving that person the opportunity to be heard, that is a basic tenet of natural justice,” Malahoo Forte said, adding that there is no need for outside legal counsel to resolve the current standoff.
As the parliamentary body charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct among sitting MPs, including violations of conflict of interest and disclosure rules, the Ethics Committee’s next steps will focus solely on gathering clarification before any formal decisions are made. Malahoo Forte stressed that the panel has not yet moved to reverse the House’s original exemption, and is only seeking to verify the accuracy of the original testimony in light of new developments.
“At this stage, we are not seeking to overturn the original recommendation we sent to the House. We simply want to examine the original findings against new information that has come to light,” Malahoo Forte said. “Once we receive clarification from the member, we will draft a new report and send it back to the full House for any further action it deems appropriate.”
Following Wednesday’s discussion, the committee voted to formally summon Gordon back to appear under the House’s standing orders, rather than extending an informal invitation. The formal process requires official notice to be delivered through the clerk of Parliament, and will follow the established timetable ahead of the committee’s next scheduled sitting.