Opposition questions appointment of Antony Anderson as…

Major General Antony Anderson

The parliamentary opposition has said it expects that Major General Antony Anderson will execute his responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) with the transparency, integrity and accountability that the post demands and that the Jamaican people are entitled to receive.

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness announced the appointment of General Anderson on Wednesday at a special post Cabinet media briefing.

General Anderson, Jamaica's current ambassador to the United States, previously served as head of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) as well as the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

His new appointment will take effect on June 1.

However, in a statement Wednesday afternoon, the People's National Party argued that the appointment raises serious questions that the government must answer openly and without delay.

In particular, the party wants to know whether General Anderson applied for this position in the ordinary course of the initial recruitment exercise. If he did not, the party said the public deserves a full and candid explanation as to why that process failed to produce a suitable candidate.

It argued that a recruitment exercise that yields no appointable candidate is not merely an administrative inconvenience, it is a signal that something is fundamentally wrong with the framework governing this institution.

The PNP said it has consistently raised concerns about the governance deficiencies embedded in the NaRRA legislation. It said the appointment does nothing to allay those concerns.

According to the party, the fact that the government's appears to have found it necessary to draw upon a serving ambassador to Jamaica's most important international partner, who has only been in that post for 12 months, to fill this role, is itself instructive.

It suggested strongly that credible candidates from within the relevant professional pool were deterred by the structural and governance arrangements that have repeatedly been flagged as inadequate.

The PNP called again for the government to bring amending legislation to address the silent governance deficiencies that continue to undermine public confidence in NaRRA.