VZCZCXYZ0006
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKG #1585 2971912
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 241912Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 5501

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINGSTON 001585 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/LP BOZZOLO, BROWN 
WHA/CAR FOR TILGHMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2017 
TAGS: SNAR PREL ASEC TRSY JM
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: APPOINTMENT OF WELL KNOWN ANTI-CORRUPTION 
FIGHTER TO MINISTRY OF FINANCE 
 
REF: KINGSTON 1464 
 
Classified By: DCM James T. Heg for reasons 1.4. (b) & (d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: As anticipated, on October 22, the Jamaican 
Minister of Finance, Audley Shaw, appointed Col. Trevor 
MacMillan as a Special Advisor on Revenue and Corruption. The 
Prime Minister asked the Finance Minister to appoint 
MacMillan as a Special Advisor to provide him with an 
official status within the Golding Government, until such 
time as the GOJ is able to redraft and pass the necessary 
legislation to create the National Independent Investigative 
Authority Act. The NIIA will consolidate and coordinate all 
public corruption investigations.  MacMillan has stated that 
he will not head another toothless, under-resourced agency. 
Prime Minster Golding ran on an anti-corruption campaign. 
The appointment of MacMillan, who is a known anti-corruption 
fighter, is a small signal that the GOJ is moving in the 
right direction. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) On October 17, MacMillan met with the NAS Director, 
and UK and Canadian High Commissioners to outline Prime 
Minister Golding's plans to resuscitate the dormant 
legislative initiative for the NIIA and the intention of the 
GOJ to appoint him as Special Advisor to the Minister of 
Finance for Anti-Corruption and Revenue.  It was widely 
speculated prior to and just after Bruce Golding's election 
as Prime Minister that MacMillan would end up as either a 
Special Advisor to Golding, or as a Special Advisor to 
Derrick Smith, Minister of National Security.  A personality 
conflict between MacMillan and Smith (MacMillan has made no 
bones about his opinion that Smith has neither the technical 
capability nor the backbone for the job) prevented 
MacMillan's appointment to either position.  The Ministry of 
Finance appointment will permit MacMillan to have an official 
status within the government until the NIIA legislation can 
be revised, presented in Parliament, passed; and implemented. 
 
3, (C)  During our meeting with MacMillan, we all expressed 
concerns that the current draft NIIA legislation, which was 
prepared by the former Minister of National Security 
(Reftel), is so toothless as to be unacceptable.  For 
example, under the current legislative structure, the 
Authority would have to ask Cabinet for approval to launch 
any investigation, and the Authority has no arrest powers. 
MacMillan agreed with our assessment and told us that unless 
the legislation is altered to his satisfaction to create a 
truly independent Authority, with police powers and full 
discretion over public corruption investigations, he would 
not agree to head it. 
 
¶4. (C) MacMillan called on the U.S., UK and Canada to 
exercise the maximum political leverage to ensure that the 
NIIA legislation is properly amended, in a timely fashion. 
We all agreed that a strong NIIA was in everyone's interest 
and pledged support to the fight to see the Authority 
launched.  However, we all pointed out that it will take more 
than just our lobbying efforts to get this done.  The UK High 
Commissioner put it most bluntly when he stated that unless 
Bruce (Golding - PM) is willing to stick his neck out and 
push for this it will fail despite any effort Jamaica's 
international partner will make.  Both the UK and Canadian 
High Commissioner chose to use Drug Don and JLP financial 
supporter, Christopher Coke as an example, asking MacMillan 
to pass on to the Prime Minister their view that unless Coke 
was going to be one of the Agency's top targets, that their 
governments couldn't support it.  As Coke is the subject of a 
current DEA investigation, the NAS Director did not address 
Coke directly but simply added that we too would not accept 
it if the NIIA played political favorites when it chooses who 
to investigate. 
 
¶5. (C) Comment:  MacMillan, who is a retired Jamaica Defence 
Force Officer, has a reputation as a hard-nosed, 
uncompromising anti-corruption fighter.  During his 
three-year stint as Police Commissioner, he was able to 
effect positive  change within the organization.  If given 
the power he seeks to conduct public corruption 
investigations at the highest level, he could do much to root 
out this pervasive problem in Jamaica.  End Comment 
JOHNSON