Jamaica: Two Ex-CLA Officers Face Integrity Commission Charges

As of July 2026, two former senior officers of Jamaica’s Cannabis Licensing Authority face charges from the Integrity Commission for failing to submit their 2023 statutory declarations. The Jamaica Gleaner reported the ruling on 9 July. The Integrity Commission tabled its ruling in Parliament on 7 July.

What Happened

Janet Cunningham, the CLA’s former chief internal auditor, and Octavia Ming-Campbell, a former procurement officer at the same agency, will be charged under Section 43(1)(a) of the Integrity Commission Act. Both were legally required to file statutory declarations covering the year ending 31 December 2023. Neither did, and neither offered the Commission a reasonable cause for the omission.

The Commission’s director of corruption prosecution issued the indicative ruling. On Cunningham, the ruling states that she “provided no reasonable cause for her failure.” On Ming-Campbell, the Commission noted she “had not approached the commission to explain why she failed to comply with the law or to discuss arrangements.”

The Cannabis Licensing Authority has not issued a public response.

What This Means for Travelers

The CLA is the body every visitor implicitly relies on when they walk into a licensed herb house. It vets cultivators, issues the retail licences that keep herb houses open, and now runs two zero-fee small-farmer permits designed to pull traditional growers into the regulated market. Nothing about the day-of tourist experience changes with this ruling. The US$10 medical authorisation at licensed herb houses still works the way it did last week.

The story matters as an integrity check on a regulator that has been visibly active this year. The CLA rolled out the transitional permits in April, took the outreach to Westmoreland in June, and drew a mass Orange Hill registration drive there. The Integrity Commission’s charges cover a filing that other public-body officers submit routinely, and missing it is treated as an offence, not a paperwork slip. That standard applies at the Authority regulating Jamaica’s herb-house market as much as anywhere else in the public sector.

What to Watch

The charges are indicative rulings by the corruption prosecutor, not formal court filings yet. The next step is a summons in the Corruption Court under Section 43. Watch also for a statement from the CLA on its current internal audit function, and for whether the Integrity Commission’s forthcoming annual report identifies further gaps at licensing bodies that manage public revenue.