CHANG DEFENDS DALLING - Security minister backs FLA leadership after IC report

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has come to the defence of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) Shane Dalling after the opposition People’s National Party called for his resignation in the wake of a report from the Integrity Commission (IC) on the operations of the entity.

The findings of an IC probe were tabled in Parliament on Tuesday after being held by the leadership of Parliament for some seven weeks. They detail severe Firearm Licensing Authority data manipulation, revealing that an employee falsified electronic records to target a prominent licensed dealer when he, among other things, logged that a dead man had purchased ammunition.

Director of Investigation Kevon Stephenson concluded in his report that well-known licensed firearm dealer Kent Brown was targeted by the FLA, following an assessment of the authority’s records.

Parliament previously noted that the IC report had not been tabled because the matter wassub judice.

While observing that his ministry would not ignore the comments of the IC, Chang said the CEO, staff and board members of the FLA are persons of high integrity who are committed to quality standards.

He stressed that the FLAhad a “good board and a good CEO with a team of people behind him doing excellent work to manage the firearm industry in Jamaica”.

He made it clear that there was no firearm missing from the armory at FLA, noting that the Inspectorate and Protective Services Division in his ministry had reviewed the processes at the FLA and found that there were no firearms and ammunition missing at the armory.

“We are satisfied that they have made major progress in involving an acceptable system of integrity and transparency. There are still little things to iron out and we are working on it,” Chang added.

The national security minister said there have been more than one instance in recent times when investigators from the police, supported by the director of public prosecutions and the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, have used the data from the FLA to anchor serious cases and achieved success.

According to Chang, this meant that the “process has been tested in the highest court of our land and has stood up to the test of all the legal parameters required to ensure that we have a good system in place”.

Chang said the FLA was not perfect but had made major advances to improve the management of the gun permit body.

He said members of the police force were aware that for approximately a year, only the police and army could import weapons as gun dealers could not obtain firearms from Jamaica’s overseas partners.

Further, he said the processes of management, record keeping and accountability were investigated and reviewed in-depth by Jamaica’s partners.

Chang observed that the illegal trading of small arms and the movement of cocaine were two of the biggest problems facing the Caribbean.

He indicated that after a review by Jamaica’s international partners, they were satisfied “with the progress to restore our rights to import [firearms]”.

According to Chang, two major firearm dealers went through a rigorous vetting process by Jamaica’s international partners starting from dealerships to the FLA and at the end were allowed to restart the process of importing weapons again.