Holness’ JAMP score upgraded; some MPs receive downgrade

Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ score has been upgraded from 57 to 71 per cent following the latest update of the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP), while Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips’ grade remains at 86 per cent.

JAMP was launched in October 2019 by a civil society group, and provides a grade for members of parliament (MP), based on information sourced from official government documents.

Holness’ first grade was calculated based on his attendance at the House of Representatives meetings, his Constituency Development Fund (CDF) consultations, and his asset declarations from 2014-2015 to 2018-2019.

Executive director of JAMP, Jeanette Calder, said a new grade was generated based on his performance between 2015 and 2020. She said the scores for all 63 MPs were calculated based on these key indicators.

While Holness’ attendance at the House of Representative meetings improved from 63 per cent in the 2015-2016 financial year to 89 per cent in 2019-2020, he had committed an offence when his asset declaration was late in 2016 and his declaration was not cleared in 2017. “The data is important in assessing and holding to account members of parliament,” said Calder, adding, “This data didn’t come up because of an election. This is an effort that JAMP will be continuing between elections every single year.”

Several MPs took issue with their score when they were first revealed about two weeks ago via the JAMP website. Among them was Kingston East and Port Royal MP Phillip Paulwell, who had a score of 38 per cent when the site was initially made accessible to the public. That score has since been changed to 83 per cent.

Calder explained to The Gleaner that the scores for Paulwell and at least five other MPs were still in the process of being calculated when they were made available for public viewing.

The site was active while the uploading of data was taking place, and so those grades have since been upgraded based on the methodology used to grade everyone. Public access was then denied, to allow for investigations, and the site was made public again on August 17.

“It was an unfortunate oversight and unfortunately, it has cost us some credibility,” she admitted.

According to the new scores, Peter Bunting has moved from 97 per cent to 96 per cent, while Dr Norman Dunn, who also had a score of 97 per cent, now has a 92 per cent score.

Minister of Education Karl Samuda has seen his score jump from 55 per cent to 85 per cent, while Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton’s grade moved from 77 to 79 per cent. Samuda, according to the online portal, had declared his assets late in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and was reported to Parliament in 2016 and 2017.

Opposition Member of Parliament for Clarendon North Horace Dalley was shown to be one of the worst performers with a 50 per cent score. While he secured 74 per cent for his attendance at House of Representatives meetings, he only received seven per cent for his attendance at sittings of the Public Accounts Committee.

Dalley received a check mark for declaring his assets late in 2015, and was reported to the the director of public prosecutions that same year. His assets were declared late again in 2016 and 2017 and he was also reported to the parliamentary leaders those same years.