KINGSTON, Jamaica — A brewing political controversy centered on alleged improper tax benefits and campaign funding has intensified in Jamaica, with youth affiliate group Young Jamaica ramping up pressure on Opposition Leader and People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding to come clean with the public. The group is demanding Golding immediately answer a key question: did construction firm JACDEN, owned by sitting PNP Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Central Dennis Gordon and currently at the heart of a high-profile tax investigation, contribute any funds to the PNP ahead of the September 3, 2025 general election?
Outlining its demands in an official media statement issued this Monday, Young Jamaica specified that Golding must publicly release the full value of any donations JACDEN made to the party across the period from January 2022 through the September 2025 election date.
The organization emphasized that Jamaican voters hold an inalienable right to full transparency around this issue. “Young Jamaica is of the view that the public has a right to know whether JACDEN, which is owned by Dennis Gordon, and benefited from what the auditor general described as an unlawful and inappropriate process, used those ill-gotten benefits to help fund the PNP’s general election campaign,” the statement read.
The controversy traces back to a recent damning report from Jamaica’s Auditor General’s Department, which named JACDEN Limited as one of four private companies that unlawfully exploited the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) tax-exempt status to secure improper financial benefits. Within hours of the report’s publication, Young Jamaica issued its first call for Gordon to resign from both his role as PNP Region 3 chairman and his elected position as Member of Parliament.
Last Sunday, Golding made a partial move to address the scandal, announcing that Gordon had been ordered to step aside from his posts on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the PNP shadow cabinet while the tax investigation remains ongoing. But Young Jamaica argues this limited disciplinary action falls far short of what the situation demands, and has doubled down on its original call for Gordon to resign from all his political positions entirely.
The group has also renewed its separate demand that Julian Robinson step down from his role as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, adding another layer of political pressure on the PNP opposition amid the widening probe.