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Letters to the Editor
I cannot support the contractor general
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Dear Editor,
I note the contractor general, Mr Greg Christie, has offered a spirited defence of his position in the July 13 Observer in response to remarks made by Minister Daryl Vaz. He claims certain virtues in his defence and includes acting "fairly" as one of them. Having suffered along with others, I cannot support him.
In my case, Mr Christie made accusations, including a comment that turned out to be incorrect. His main thrust was that a contract was not tendered and so may have been manipulated by me, a situation where subsequently, the National Contracts Commission ruled that the contract could be awarded on a sole source basis as it was not capable of public tender and you either accepted the terms offered or rejected the contract.
How can you get fairness when the prosecutor in these cases, the contractor general publishes "his" findings in the media and treats them as "Gospel according to Christie"? The publication should not be permitted until an independent person, like the director of public prosecutions or a special panel set up for the purpose, has reviewed the evidence and confirmed that Mr Christie is correct. None of the other persons entitled to start investigations such as the DPP or the commissioner of police begin a matter with an announcement in the media.
What Minister Vaz states is correct. Because of Mr Christie's approach, where your reputation can be damaged with no recourse, many of our leading citizens will not accept appointments to any government body and a big problem has been created for government. This problem will not disappear even when he is no longer the contractor general, and therefore getting capable persons into many of the government post will not be easy. Based on his response, it seems Mr Christie does not care.
Patrick Rousseau
prousseau@cwjamaica.com
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7/14/2010
George Watson. You have missed the point. There is no shortage of PEOPLE who want to "serve". The shortage is in the area of people with both competence and integrity. Those who rank high on both counts get a little pissed when their names are mentioned in anything which sounds nasty. Crooks on the other hand are climbing over each other to get a finger into the cookie jar.
7/14/2010
That's how we are in this country. Unless the situation does not affect us personally, we keep silent. Mr. Rousseau should continue to keep his mouth shut.
7/14/2010
The politicians are always cussed out and compared to all manner of vile things, yet we have people vying to represent their parties in Parliament at election time.
I don't think that if everything is above board you have anything to be afraid of as far as the OCG is concerned.
In the meantime I am happy to have heard on radio yesterday the PNP disassociating itself from mr. Vaz's tirade against the OCG in this newspaper.
The party surely doesn't need him as its spokeman.
7/14/2010
Mr Rousseau, if rhetoric is the issue, I am quite sure Mr Christie would consider applying more tact in his pronouncements if approached.
In my estimation, Mr Christie carefully and skillfully uses the press to make the public aware of "events not in our best interests", and to warn and dissuade wrong-doers from carrying out same. We should be giving the OCG more teeth to chomp away at corruption effectively. Give him teeth so he won't bark.
Support for Mr Christie is a must! No, to Corruption.
7/14/2010
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we should allow that. This writer for example has had two letters published in just two days, which is more than many other writers get in months.
Anyway this letter serves up just some of what's wrong with Jamaica. So does this writer not support the office of the CG or just the person.
The view expressed are once again what I refer to as sector interest, where no matter how good a law/person is, as long as they dont support my agenda, then no support
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