OCG Ranked as Jamaica's Leading National Anti-Corruption Agency

A November 2011 national Don Anderson-Market Research Services Poll, which was conducted in 180 communities island-wide, has ranked the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), from among Jamaica's seven (7) major law-enforcement and anti-corruption agencies, as having earned the highest level of public satisfaction in the fight against corruption in the island.

The other six national agencies, all of which were ranked in the National Integrity Action Limited (NIAL) commissioned Poll, were the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Corruption Prevention Commission, the Office of the Auditor General, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Parliamentary Integrity Commission and the Office of the Commissioner of Customs.

The OCG, which is an Independent Anti-Corruption Parliamentary Commission, is vested with the exclusive statutory authority under the law to monitor and to investigate the award and termination of all Government of Jamaica contracts, licenses and permits, with a view to ensuring impartiality, merit, propriety and the absence of irregularity in the Jamaica Public Sector procurement, contract award and licensing processes.

The OCG's jurisdiction currently covers the activities of roughly 200 ministries, agencies, departments and statutory corporations of Government which, together, issue more than 600 different categories of licences and permits, and award in excess of 11,000 high-value construction, goods, services and asset divestment Government contracts, each year, valuing an estimated $110 billion, or an amount which is equivalent to roughly one-fifth of the overall annual expenditure budget of the Government of Jamaica.

The award of Government contracts and the divestment of State-owned assets are universally recognized as constituting perhaps the single largest corruption enabling conduit that exists today in any country in the world.