THERE is nothing as political as politics, especially when an organisation or elements within it turn upon itself and attempt, like termites, to eat away from within the entity.

Recently the Office of the Contractor General made a surprise "raid" on the offices of the PCJ. The sudden investigation gave many the impression that shenanigans were taking place with the highly publicised LNG energy plan and the bidding process which awarded Exmar Consortium the go-ahead to roll out its proposed LNG facility by early 2013.

The consortium partners are Exmar NV, a Belgian diversified and independent gas shipping and offshore group specialising in the transport of gas such as LNG and LPG; Promigas, a Colombian outfit which is in the business of LNG transportation and distribution and telecommunications; and CLNG, a special-purpose Jamaican company whose business will be to assist the Exmar Consortium in the development of an integrated LNG infrastructure and delivery project in Jamaica.

My information is that the anonymous information package that was passed on to the OCG and sections of the media came from within the PCJ and one source told me, "We are not ruling out that it came from within the PCJ Board appointed by the JLP government."

The question is, why would this be so when the procurement process last year had been monitored by the OCG and that entity was afforded every opportunity to operate with sufficient oversight of the process, down to bid opening?

The "anonymous" informant had loosely pieced together bits of information in a crude bid to create the impression that something untoward was afoot. To me, the conspiracy had as its primary objective destabilising Minister James Robertson who is currently presiding over two of the largest and most important private investment packages seen in Jamaica over the last 30 years.

Let us call a spade a spade, not a spoon. There are some people in corporate Jamaica and in other places who simply do not like James Robertson. Frankly, whether I happen to like the minister or not ought to be immaterial, if more than some good seems to be coming out of his ministry.

It ought to be plainly stated also that I am a great admirer of the work of Greg Christie, the contractor general, and his hard-working and highly efficient staff. The OCG must be commended for its zeal in its work but at the same time Mr Christie must know that others will use that very zeal for narrow political purposes. Certainly the OCG cannot respond to every "anonymous" tip, dubious or otherwise. That said, it appears to me that in the present instance the information passed on to the OCG was effected with the sole purpose of embarrassing the mining and energy minister.

But it also indicates that at a certain level there is infighting in the JLP.

Some of those critics of the plan seem to have made it their secondary mission to target CLNG, the local partner.

Made up of eight highly successful Jamaicans and one foreign partner, somehow they are seen as too successful, and that is something to be frowned upon in our neck of the woods. It ought to be known that it is nothing less than a requirement that whenever large companies (like Exmar Marine NV and Promigas) engage in large projects in countries like Jamaica, local participation or partners must be part of the deal. In that regard, CLNG has already spent more than US$1 million to engage the services of top engineering firms like Bechtel Corporation and the very best lawyers specialising in work of this nature.

The rationale behind local partnership, small though it may be in relation to the overall proposed investment, is that local partners must prove that they are not averse to risking their own funds, that they have more than just a "chat" in the project before the major foreign players enter. That is just plain horse sense.

As I understand it, all the money spent so far by the GOJ is either grant-funded by the World Bank and/or being taken up through the PetroCaribe funds. Basically, therefore, what Minister Robertson is riding on is his political horse and he ought to be congratulated whether we like him or not. We know, however, that successive governments have proved that their word is to be lightly taken so we will be holding the minister to his word and questioning him at every opportunity.

Let me reiterate for the critics. This investment is a purely private one and represents the largest investment in this area in the last 30 years. Why are more of us not lauding it?

LNG criticisms

One man who claims knowledge of the workings inside government wrote to me and said, "I am not arguing against LNG but the manner in which it is being handled. Some people are set to make a great deal of money perhaps at Jamaica's expense and without transparency."

In a July 3, 2010 column, "Talk is cheap! Is LNG?", Marcia Forbes who was recently permanent secretary in the Energy and Mining Ministry wrote, "Soon after I had resigned as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Mining, I engaged in a conversation regarding LNG. Having expressed concern in the manner it was beginning to be positioned to Jamaicans, with focus entirely on pricing, I opined that a better strategy was to spell out its environmental advantages. I was concerned that based on everything I had learnt about LNG, by the time it became available to the householders of Jamaica, light bills would perhaps not actually be reduced to the extent they were led to believe would happen."

She also said in her column, "Paulwell questions the extent to which the bauxite sector, a key stakeholder in supporting the LNG initiative, is 'on board', meaning not just word-of-mouth support but a signed commitment."

It is accepted that if Jamalco, the largest proposed user with JPS second, is not fully up to 100 per cent capacity by the time LNG is proposed to be ready, early 2013, the programme will prove to be unviable. It is therefore incumbent on Jamaica that the deal with Zhuhai Hong Fan Trading of China for the sale of Government of Jamaica's share in Jamalco be completed as proposed.

Most of the criticisms impute some "inside deal" but so far, none has been revealed. I invite those who claim to have such information to link with me.

observemark@gmail.com

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