Christie fuming over DPP's finding in LNG case

Friday, September 23, 2011

THE finding by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) that there is no direct or circumstantial evidence that Ian Moore and Stephen Wedderburn were guilty of corruption or bid-rigging in the ongoing LNG saga has earned the ire of Contractor General Greg Christie.

Responding to a September 20 letter in which the ODPP detailed the reasons for its findings, Christie, who has had a stormy relationship with DPP Paula Llewellyn, said the State prosecutor's office came to its conclusion without considering crucial incriminating facts which, he said, had been communicated to the police.

"The opinion of the ODPP is, at best, having regard to all of the circumstances of the case, premature," Christie said in a news release yesterday. "The contractor general conveyed to the commissioner of police highly confidential information, regarding certain matters that were the subject of the OCG's investigation, which had come into the possession of the OCG during the course of its investigation."

Christie said that the "specifics of the information that was relayed to the commissioner was of such a sensitive and pivotal nature that it could not be made public at that time" and "still cannot be made public at this time".

In May this year, Christie, in a 609-page report to Parliament, recommended that the Government immediately scrap the tender process for the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project.

At the time, Christie alleged that there may have been conspiracy on the part of several individuals to benefit illicitly from the deal struck with "preferred bidder" Exmar Consortium, to supply LNG via a storage and regasification floating facility last year.

Christie named Moore, former chairman of the board of directors of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ); and Wedderburn, former LNG project co-ordinator for the PCJ, both of Caribbean LNG (Jamaica), which is part of the Exmar Consortium, saying he was leaving it to the DPP and the commissioner of police to determine whether or not "Moore and/or Wedderburn used their offices in a conspiratory, fraudulent, corrupt, clandestine and or surreptitious manner to ensure a future illicit benefit for themselves".

At the same time, he recommended that the DPP and the commissioner undertake further investigations into the actions of Moore and Wedderburn with respect to alleged "multiple irregularities and improprieties" identified by his office in the course of the investigations which formally began in September last year.

But the ODPP, in its report presented by Senior DPP Caroline Hay, said that while the evidence presented by Christie showed that Exmar had a clear advantage when it submitted its proposal to the Technical Evaluation Committee, there was "no evidential, whether direct or circumstantial, basis to draw the inference that their advantageous position was the result of bid-rigging or corruption on the part of Mr Ian Moore or Mr Stephen Wedderburn".

Yesterday, Christie said that he was preparing a formal and comprehensive response to the ODPP's letter.

At the same time, Moore, who owns 31.2 per cent of Caribbean LNG, maintained that there was nothing untoward or biased about the process and said that he "welcomed the [ODPP] ruling" which has "exonerated" him of "any allegations of bid-rigging and corruption in the procurement process".

Moore however said that Christie's statement was "a most unfortunate attempt to further malign" his reputation and "disrespect the constitutional role of the ODPP and its rulings.

"The contractor general, a trained lawyer, must know that the director of public prosecution has the constitutional authority to make rulings after considering all information, including information from the police," Moore said.

"I wish to underscore the fact that at the time of the bid, Exmar commissioned 100 per cent of all FSRUs in the world. It is against this background that I have always found ludicrous the suggestion that Exmar would have found it necessary to rely on anything but their known competence and experience in the field worldwide to win such a bid," Moore said.

Read the ODPP's letter to the contractor general in your Sunday Observer

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COMMENTS (13)

Jay Brown
9/23/2011

Greg has all right to be peeved as there is proof that funds were exchanged to secure the bid for Exmar.
I have even the amount of money involved. Welcome to Jamaica !

Kwame Gordon-Martin
9/23/2011

I don't think any of these guys did anything wrong, legally, but take advantage of their position and knowledge to fulfill a middle-man role and get paid a ton of money. There are no laws against this in JA as far as I know, despicable as the practice may be.If the police and DPP have pertinent information that suggests criminal activity and once again do nothing, then its time we get a new DPP. I will clearly state i think she is an incompetent, political hack and I havent been proven wrong yet

Jeff Orange
9/23/2011

Mr. Christie, I have now come to understand your frustrations, but one man cannot change an entrenched system. The “System” is locked, with a JLP DPP, A JLP Commissioner of Police and JLP AG/Justice Minister. Sorry boss, DPP Paula hold the handle and you, unfortunately, hold the blade. Sit out the rest of your contract term and call it a day. This is how things run a yaad…it done lock already. Move on a setup your own thing or migrate again where your skill sets are valued.

J L
9/23/2011

Why does Christie always have to be right and everybody else wrong? He did his job and now the DPP is doing her job and he is fuming! I do not know, nor do I care to know the particulars of this case, but Christie needs to go enter politics full-time or find some other avenue where can be top cop, lawyer, judge and executioner all at once.

Paul Gentles
9/23/2011

There are laws...then there are proponents of the law. when the sanctioners of the law are either inept at best or corrupt like a lot of public officials linked to politics Jcans suffer. Until there are oversight bodies that hold people in high offices accountable then justice will continue to be selective. Dor was sacked after she outlived her usefulness apparently this DPP have unfinished business!

critical thinker
9/23/2011

The problem is that Mr. Christie sees corruption in everything. Yes, Mr. Christie, so the two men you want to lock up may have been 'biased' towards the most qualified company (Exmar)--- I hope they were. You behave as if the only fair method of selecting a company or someone for a government contract would be the throw of a die--- no human input and judgment whatsoever. And now you can't handle the DPP ruling--- too bad for you then.

Lisa Whyte
9/23/2011

Paula, Paula, why don't you at least one time, take Greg's case 'as is' to the court and then let the judge throw out the case, embarass you and then let the defendant sue the Gov't?? Perhaps only then Jamaicans may believe your rulings and leave you alone. And perhaps Greg would up his game and bring you some real 'juice' that would pass the criminal case litmus test!!!

Orville Smith
9/23/2011

I remember the days when some cases,especially those involving members of the security forces, were, it seemed automatically dismissed when brought before the ODPP or charges were so delayed that it would amount to Aiding&Abetting the accused in fleeing the jurisdiction.

Orville Smith
9/23/2011

I would trust Mr. Christie's judgement anytime over the judgement of anyone in the office of the DPP, including the Director herself. I would also welcome some amendment to the constitution that governs how that office opperates, with a view of making it more transparent and somehow answerable to the people of Jamaica.

Ainsworth Cole
9/23/2011

JAMAICA'S LNG PROJECT BEEN SET BACK YEARS. Do we really want to do anything that will change our fortunes or are we a bunch of jokers. The Emar bid won and they were it seems the preffered bidder, in all bidding procedure worldwide there as to be a preffered bidder, that usually wins, how else will we choose and accept as a front runner or a favoured bidder that go on to win. There must be loosers, and the people given the task to choose must do so be they govt ministers, civil servant or expert

Winston Sharpe
9/23/2011

There seems to be a very serious issue here! Christies" credibility is beyond reproach and i would be terribly surprised if he makes public statements without the requisite info to back them up. On the flip side,the dpp has been found wanting on numerous occasions. There are outstanding cases that just might follow her into retirement. How the hell do we fix this!!

RED ANTS
9/23/2011

Gregg,you might as well remain calm until your contract end you call it a day.Only the US can deal with these people that we call official.Jamaica's law only affect the man in the street and the small fish in the police force.

0o k
9/23/2011

Christie fuming ...It's been a while since he has fumed, I guess he is due one now!

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