Christie, Warmington face off again

Contractor general wants minutes of Constituency Development Fund meetings

BY ERICA VIRTUE Observer writer vituee@jamaicaobserver.com

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

CONTRACTOR General, Greg Christie and Constituency Development Fund (CDF) chairman Everald Warmington, are at daggers drawn again, this time over his letter to Warmington asking that minutes of meetings of the committee be submitted to his office as of October 1.

Warmington told today's meeting of the CDF he has no authority to turn over any records to him and based on his comments it is unlikely that Christie will get anything from him.

"The letter in effect is asking me to supply as of now all minutes of the CDF meeting to the Contractor General's office or review starting with October, and where October is concerned I am to submit it within 30 days. And all minutes must be submitted to his office and it must be within 30 days after each month," Warmington told members of the parliamentary committee.

"I wrote and advised the Contractor General¹s office that I have no authority to deliver any document from parliament or anything from parliament to his office. And if he has an issue with any committee of parliament, then he should write a directive communication to the Speaker," he stated.

According to Warmington, there was nothing in the meeting that needs to be turned over to the OCG. He added that if Christie needed information on any issue his concerns ought to be with whether projects, through the implementing agency, were properly carried out.

"The Contractor General¹s Office is a creature of Parliament. Parliament is not a creature of the Contractor General. The Contractor General reports to Parliament, parliament does not report to the Contractor General," he said.

Committee member Derrick Kellier sought to ascertain from Warmington which laws were cited by the Contractor General for his request, insisting that proper procedures must be upheld.

"Under what section of the Contractor General Act did he seek to obtain any form of information or report coming from this committee," he queried.

According to Kellier, if Christie needed information, which he admitted was public information he should use the press and the website.

He did not say which website.

Warmington said no regulation was cited by Christie, the request he said was in the form of a letter.

But committee member Andrew Gallimore said the Contractor General should not have to cite any section of any act to get public information.

"The records are here. The Hansard writers are here, I don¹t think we have anything to hide and I think that we should facilitate his request in anyway that we can," Gallimore said.

But Kellier pounced on Gallimore charging that proper procedure must be used, which was the request via the Speaker.

Warmington's position was supported by members Noel Arscott and St Aubyn Bartlett.