Abandoning Air J sale for JALPA would be illegal - OCG

JamaicaObserver.com

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

THE Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has written to lawyers for the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association (JALPA) to quash its attempt to acquire Air Jamaica via legal clause available to them as existing Air Jamaica employees.

JALPA had wanted to acquire the airline via the the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) of 1994 and bypass the tender process. However, the OCG responded that there is no provision under the ESOP which would allow JALPA to usurp the competitive tendering process; nor could current negotiations with Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines be interrupted.

“…Should the Government of Jamaica choose to set aside the public competitive tendering process, which it has embarked upon, to facilitate the singular desires of JALPA and/or the employees of Air Jamaica, or any other entity or special interest group, any such action would be viewed by the OCG as a fundamental violation of the Government contract award principles which are enshrined in Section 4 (1) of the Contractor General Act and, consequently, as an unlawful act," the OCG wrote JALPA yesterday.

Government intends to divest the airline by March, and JALPA has said that it would consider starting its own airline should the proposed sale to Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines go ahead.

"By tomorrow when we go to talk with one of our major investors we will have a plan which will ensure a number of things, keeping in mind that we are talking about an investment of over US$60 million, and any investor who is investing that amount of money would want to ensure growth because that is where he generates his money," said Captain Richard Russell Capleton, spokesman for the Air Jamaica Staff Acquisition Ream and immediate past president of the Jamaican Airline Pilots Association (JALPA) at a press conference Monday

JALPA is also disputing Caribbean Airlines bid for national carrier status contending that it prohibit any Jamaican owning and operating an airline on the same routes.