Jamaica signed the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (IACAC) on March 29, 1996, and ratified it on March 16, 2001. It is a State Party to the Follow-Up Mechanism for the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) since June 4, 2002. The country also signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) on September 16, 2005, and subsequently ratified it on March 5, 2008. Accordingly, Jamaica has undergone five rounds of review under MESICIC, and one round of review under the UNCAC review mechanism.

Jamaica’s record in implementing its commitments to IACAC and UNCAC exhibits a number of successes and a few failures. With an overall score of 65.1, the measures adopted place the country at the middle point of compliance with international norms, surrounded by Bolivia (62.7), Panama (63.5), Ecuador (65.1), and Uruguay (66.1). However, progress in implementation is somewhat unequally distributed. The country achieves higher success in regard to criminalization and international cooperation while half of all deficient and unimplemented measures are found in regard to prevention. That being said, three quarters of all measures evaluated here receive a score of 50 or above—a degree of progress that reflects the overall state of the country’s performance.

The prevention of corruption is undergoing, classified as “in progress” by its average score and with prominent measures given a score of 50 or above—the adoption of standards of conduct (53.1) and their enforcement (59.4), and the initiatives to encourage the participation of civil society (71.1). The study of preventive measures related to equitable compensation is considered to be fully implemented. On the other hand, half of all measures within this section fail to achieve sufficient progress—the actions to deter domestic and foreign bribery related to accounting regulations (26.6), the training of public officials (31.3), the state of oversight bodies (31.3) and—to a lesser degree—the systems for registering asset and conflict of interests' declarations and transparency in government contracting (both of which receive an encouraging score of 43.8), among others.

In terms of criminalization and law enforcement, Jamaica shows better results than those regarding prevention—and slightly better than those for international cooperation, as well. In fact, only three measures within this section receive a score below 50 and one of them is classified as “in progress”. The country is found to have successfully implemented a number of significant commitments, including those pertaining to embezzlement in the public sector, bribery in the private sector, and the liability of legal persons (the latter two required by UNCAC), among others. On the other hand, only two measures are found fully unimplemented: the criminalization of the illicit acquisition of a benefit (i.e., influence trading) and the passive bribery of foreign officials. Other important measures, such as the criminalization of active bribery of foreign officials (47.7), illicit enrichment (50.8) and abuse of functions (53.1), as well as the efforts to protect those who report acts of corruption (i.e., whistleblowing protection) (50.8) remain clearly in progress. Regarding the above-mentioned state of regulations addressing foreign bribery, the country’s efforts are found to be in progress due to limitations in their legal features and unreported results. According to the UNCAC review mechanism, “[a]ctive bribery of foreign public officials is criminalized… but does not include officials of public international organizations.”

Finally, Jamaica is found largely compliant in its commitments to establish jurisdiction over the offenses covered by the conventions, including those that have been committed inside its territory, committed by a national, or when the offender is present in its territory, among other required forms. However, the UNCAC review mechanism reports that Jamaica’s jurisdiction “does not include offenses… relating to bribery in the private sector,” which is all the more relevant given that the country has otherwise successfully criminalized bribery in the private sector (as mentioned in the previous paragraph). Furthermore, it is also highlighted that “Jamaica does not take [UNCAC] as legal basis for cooperation on extradition and only uses bilateral treaties or the London Scheme applicable to Commonwealth States.” That being said, the overall level of implementation the country’s commitments regarding international cooperation is found to be in progress, with an average section score of 65.7.