Ken Chaplin

It was contractor general Greg Christie, and not the PNP MPs in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), who represented the interests of the Jamaican people at a sitting of the committee on September 19 to consider reports on the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel project. The country was shocked by the disgraceful treatment meted out to Christie by some government members at the sitting, all because he stuck to his guns in his crusade to clean up the mismanagement mess caused by the failure of some government entities to follow public sector procurement procedures.

Instead of supporting the contractor general they attempted to put obstacles in his way and to confuse and humiliate him, tried to shake his confidence, throw him off track and perhaps get him to throw down the gauntlet so that their cronies in the entities could continue their misdeeds. However, Christie showed signs that he would be pressing on. Good for him and the country. There are good reasons for procurement procedures. They help to make tenders for government projects fair and transparent. The truth is that for the 14 years of the Patterson administration, entities like the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) have dodged the procurement procedures in order to facilitate political cronies of the government.

When Christie requested certain information on projects, some of the entities showed disrespect to him by not responding. The UDC, for example, has failed to comply with Christie's requirement for information on the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel project on which there was a cost overrun of US$43 million - money which could have been used to restore the ailing health sector, among other things. The UDC was manager of the project. Christie certainly caught the UDC with its pants down. The entity said that consultants were hired for the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel project before the public sector procurement procedures came into force. When asked by the contractor general to provide documentary evidence to support the claim, the UDC was unable to do so.
The matter of the tone of the request by the contractor general for information on the national airline, Air Jamaica, should not have caused a problem between himself and Dr Carlton Davis, cabinet secretary. The contractor general, in keeping with his legal authority, made several attempts to get information from the Ministry of Finance on whether Air Jamaica was a public body, but there was no response. Dr Davis was concerned about the tone of the requests, but he had no authority to interfere whether in terms of tone or substance. In any case, one could point out that his brother, Dr Omar Davies, minister of finance and planning, was getting by with what many regard as his arrogant tone while the prime minister seemed comfortable with her strident tone at times. As it turned out, Air Jamaica had failed to comply with the government's procurement procedures since 2004.

The only way to deal with entities which fail to meet the requests by the contractor general is to enact into law with all deliberate haste, proposals by Christie. Said he in a letter to Audley Shaw, chairman of the PAC: "In point of fact, the records of past reports (contractor general's), including those from the previous contractors general, will show that this behaviour is systematic of what has been a long-standing and pervasive attitude among several public sector agencies. It is vitally imperative, therefore, that public bodies and public officers are held to book. All state organs, inclusive of the Cabinet, government, Parliament and parliamentarians, should publicly give unequivocal support to this endeavour." He suggested legislation to provide for punitive sanctions against public officials or public bodies which breach the government procurement procedures and which are not now regulated by any law of Jamaica. This is a position with which the auditor general Adrian Strachan concurs. But will the government act?

PM's jobs, Patterson's return

Only those who are not aware of the suffering of the unemployed in this country will criticise the programme announced by the prime minister to provide $635 million for a special employment programme planned to create 12,000 temporary jobs over a six-month period. Given the extent of unemployment in Jamaica, this programme might not appear to be much, but in terms of meeting some of the basic needs of 12,000 poor people, it is important.

Therefore, this column commends the prime minister for initiating the programme. But there must be an equitable distribution of the jobs and to ensure this, the programme must truly be administered by central and local government agencies, trade unions, political parties and the private sector.

When PJ Patterson said he was quitting as prime minister, he gave as his reason the desire to spend more time with his family. However, I doubt whether he will be able to do so with his big new job with an international institution and his decision to play a leading role for his party in the political campaign for the next general election. Patterson has a reputation as a shrewd political organiser, but it is left to be seen whether he will be effective, in view of signs of corruption and cases of mismanagement left behind by his administration.

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot