Joseph Hibbert, the junior minister for transport and works, has declared his innocence and it is for those who have implicated him in wrong-doing to make and prove their case against him. And Mr Hibbert has an absolute right and deserves every opportunity to defend himself. That is natural justice.

But neither Mr Hibbert nor the rest of the Government, and in particular Prime Minister Golding, can any longer ignore the seriousness of the investigations, which have been linked to a relatively senior member of the administration, who sits in a position of public trust, in command of public resources. Not in the face of developments at the Westminster magistrates' court in London on Friday.

The British engineering company, Mabey and Johnson, admitted to charges of corruption and breaching United Nations sanctions against Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime, by paying kickbacks to win contracts. Jamaica and Ghana are the other countries where Maybe and Johnson, the manufacturer of Bailey bridges, is alleged to have paid graft or attempted to corrupt public officials to win contracts.

At the time, Mr Hibbert was the chief technical director in what was then the Ministry of Transport and Works. He subsequently went into politics and is now serving his second term as a parliamentarian.

But last year, the United Kingdom's (UK) Serious Fraud Office implicated Mr Hibbert in the taking of kickbacks, and with Jamaican police, searched his home and took away computer files and other documents. Prime Minister Golding and the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have stood by Mr Hibbert, confident of his innocence.

Overriding concern

That confidence is apparently unshaken. "We have absolutely no reason to think that he is guilty," the party's general secretary and a senior minister, Karl Samuda, said in the face of the latest developments.

Our overriding concern at this time is neither the innocence nor guilt of Mr Hibbert, but his role as a minister of government in whom the public is owed the right to repose confidence. Indeed, that obligation rests not only on Mr Hibbert, but on the Government as a whole, and it is Mr Golding's responsibility to take into account whether Mr Hibbert's membership of the team, in the current circumstance, impairs the credibility of the administration.

In that regard, we repeat our suggestion of several months ago that Mr Hibbert should resign or take a leave of absence - until the matter is settled, which is to say, he is cleared of the allegations.

Investigation

This settlement, however, ought not to be the remit solely of the authorities in the UK. The Jamaican authorities have a stake in the case, which is perhaps why the Office of the Contractor General and the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption may consider it worthy to launch such an investigation. We expect that Mr Hibbert would welcome such a move, which would give him a better opportunity to clear his name.

Mr Hibbert's lawyer has also brought to light what he says is normal practice, which we feel ought to be brought urgently to an end: that of public servants going abroad to verify the capacity of contractors and having their expenses paid for by the very firms they have been sent to scrutinise. That is bad business.

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