Above: Kingston (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica must “find the way to eliminate corruption,” according to the country’s attorney general, Patrick Atkinson.

The country’s top lawyer said the country “should not use obstructive bureaucratic methods, which avoids dealing with the corruption, and instead sets up obstructions to doing business.”

“We must search and find the way to eliminate corruption, while we expedite urgently needed business projects in the country,” he told Parliament this week. “It is true that corruption exists and we all have a vested interest in wiping it out from the Jamaican landscape.”

Atkinson also pointed to problems of understaffing at his Department, at both the attorney and support staff level.

“Nonetheless, we will soldier on until such time as the economy can accommodate us,” he said. “The work must be done and we as a team will continue to prioritize the cases as we place the interest of the country and its growth at the forefront.”

He said that the Constitution and laws of Jamaica must be enforced, but cautioned that “they must first be correctly interpreted and we must never allow our laws to be misinterpreted to create obstructions and bureaucratic difficulties in the path of growth.”