Christie blasts Observer

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

CONTRACTOR General Greg Christie yesterday accused the Observer of trying to instruct him how to do his job and suggested that the newspaper wanted a return to the days when "the award of government contracts were permitted to run rampant under the cover of darkness".

In a caustic reply to yesterday's editorial in which the Observer urged Christie not to publicise specifics of his reason to investigate matters within his remit, the contractor general asked whose interest is being served when a lucrative Government contract award, which exhibits patent signs of irregularity or impropriety, is kept under the blanket of darkness?

"The question becomes even more critical and ominous when the very entity that is itself insisting that the cloak of secrecy be maintained over the matter is a daily newspaper that has already dedicated, and continues to dedicate, each week, some of its pages and editorial cartoons to what appears to be a sustained effort to steer the public's opinion towards what it, the newspaper, considers to be the facts of the matter, albeit that some of these so-called facts have already been found to be unadulterated falsehoods by a Special Statutory Report of Investigation of the OCG (Office of the Contractor General) which was formally tabled in both Houses of Parliament almost five years ago," Christie said.

His reference was to the negotiations for the sale of the Sandals Whitehouse hotel to Gorstew Ltd, the holding company formed by hotelier Gordon 'Butch' Stewart who is also chairman of the Observer.

The Observer had argued that by publicising specifics of his reason to investigate, the contractor general was "leaving his office open to questions about its credibility, should the information with which he is armed going into the probe prove to be inaccurate".

But Christie insisted that the public announcement by the OCG of the commencement of its special investigations, and the giving of its reasons for the probe "are deliberate and standard OCG operating procedures which can be traced as far back as to October 10, 2006, when the OCG launched a special investigation into the then widely published allegations of impropriety and corruption which were made by the then leader of the opposition and current prime minister of Jamaica, the Hon Bruce Golding, in the Trafigura Beheer matter".

Christie said it was "instructive to record that, at the time, the Observer did not take the OCG or the then leader of opposition to task on the matter, but instead assisted in further publishing the allegations, although they were just that — unproven allegations".

He said it was imperative that the OCG informs the public why it has decided to investigate a specific contract award. "However, once the OCG commences a special statutory investigation, it is a widely known fact, throughout the local media fraternity, that the OCG will not, as a general rule, comment on the specifics of any of its ongoing investigations until the investigations have been completed and the reports thereon are formally laid in both Houses of Parliament," he said.

Added Christie: "In the final analysis, however, the Observer newspaper, and other observers, should come to understand that the OCG is an independent and quasi-judicial anti-corruption commission of the Parliament of Jamaica, which was established by law with one primary mandate only — namely "to ensure", "on behalf of Parliament", that Government contracts are awarded "impartially and on merit" and in "circumstances that do not involve impropriety or irregularity".