Christie recommends Hill be barred from Gov't boards

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

CONTRACTOR General Greg Christie has recommended that the Government take steps to ensure that former banker Aubyn Hill be barred from serving on the board of directors of any public body in the future.

The recommendation is one of several contained in a 148-page report tabled in Parliament yesterday reflecting the results of Christie's probe into Hill's multi-million dollar consultancy contract with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to oversee the divestment of State sugar assets.

The Office of the Contractor General's (OCG's) decision to commence the probe came on the heels of media reports alleging that Hill's company, Corporate Strategies Limited, had been paid $27 million for consultancy services.

The OCG said it had found that Hill was intimately involved in the divestment process from as far back as December 2005 when he was appointed chairman of the Sugar Cane Industry Enterprise Team (SET) which was charged with overseeing the privatisation of the Government-owned sugar assets.

Christie said the arrangement was highly questionable, given the fact that the OCG received conflicting statements from permanent secretary in the Ministry Donovan Stanberry, Hill and Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton as to the nature of Hill's engagement by the ministry.

On the one hand Christie said Stanberry, in a 2009 statement, insisted that the two contracts awarded to Hill between June 2008 and February 2009 during the divestment process were contracts of employment by the ministry.

However, Christie said contrary to Stanberry's assertion of the award of an 'employment contract' to Hill, the OCG found that both contracts, which were signed by the ministry and Hill, were for consultancy services.

"They were not, as the permanent secretary had represented, employment contracts," Christie said.

"The OCG has concluded that, in light of the existence of Mr Hill's consultancy contract, and the obvious conflict of interest situations which would have clearly arisen, the minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, should not have appointed Mr Hill as the chairman of the board of directors of the SCJ Holdings Ltd, nor as a member of the board of directors of the SCJ in 2009 July," he said.

He went on to note that the first contract, which was awarded on August 18, 2008 to Hill, should have been subjected to the GOJ procurement guidelines and was in fact awarded in breach.

"The OCG has found that by virtue of the fact that the ministry had failed to obtain the prior approval of the National Contracts Commission, the contract award process was, therefore, both irregular and improper in nature. Consequently, the award of the contract to Mr Hill was unlawful," Christie said.

In addition, he said the second contract, awarded to Hill in March 2009, should have been subjected to the new Procurement Guidelines, which came into force in December 2008.

Christie also said that the contract which was awarded on March 30, 2009 to Hill, via the Sole Source Contracting Procurement Methodology, was awarded in breach.

But the agriculture ministry, in a statement issued to the media yesterday, said it "completely and unequivocally" repudiated Christie's suggestion that the minister, permanent secretary and Hill had contrived to deliberately deceive him. The ministry, however, said Stanberry had initially made a genuine mistake in designating the contracts "Employment Contracts", an admission later made to Christie by Stanberry but of which no note was taken in the OCG report.

The ministry also dismissed suggestions that Hill's engagement was a conflict of interest, and said owing to the fact that the decision to have Hill head the process was a Cabinet decision, it would have been illogical, having obtained a Cabinet approval to contract Hill, to seek further approval from the other lower levels of approval in the procurement system.

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COMMENTS (17)

Maxwell Dockery
9/16/2010

Make Christie the attorney general, and omit him from the cabinet

Brooklyn Jamaican
9/16/2010

If this Contractor General sees something wrong, fine. Where does he get powers to recommend this or that. Even if he is correct in his findings he is getting bumptious and maybe he thinks he is President of the Republic.

Duncan Bertram
9/15/2010

Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuffffffffffffffttttttttttttttooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnn

Peter Lawrence
9/15/2010

J'cans must now DEMAND comprehensive Constitutional Reform from political REPS. Even with that, we are, here on earth, dealing with human beings who are prone to misdeeds, BUT it will be much easier to hold leaders to account ,and in fear of consequencies ,for the inevitable violations of Public Trust. That is what we should be doing instead of the yearly celebrating of EMANCIPATION- a CORRUPT ploy to REWARD slavery and bad governance., and ENTRENCH POVERTY in the masses .

Verna Kitson
9/15/2010

it is one thing to engage in unethical behaviour - that is common practice across the society. It is another thing entirely to be unable to tell the difference between unethical and illegal behaviour, and to expect everyone else to accept that paying someone for services and then appointing them to be chair of the body responsible for paying for said services is perfectly ok. Maybe in JLPNPLand, but nowhere else.

blog dis
9/15/2010

I know from experience that a lot of these "returning residents " come home with great fanfare under the guise of helping to build the country when in fact thier only interest is building thier bank account .
And they are often enabled by a star stuck foreign minded populace
This man seemed to have found favour with both JLP/PNP admins
Aaah Poor us

Anthony Johnson
9/15/2010

Isn't it possible for Mr Hill to hold both positions and do his job with Integrity and honesty.Why is it when the CG makes a report you bloggers always seem to think something criminal.

Anthony Johnson
9/15/2010

The CG needs to explain clearly where the conflict of interest exist.Why is he recommending that Mr Hill dont serve on any Government Board when Mr Hill did not hire himself for this project.Next thing i would like to ask,didn't Mr Hill did the job that was required of him by getting rid of the DEAD STOCK off Jamaican tax payers.

Trevor Harris
9/15/2010

Jamaica is a corrupted , failed state and with these all these guys in leadership things wont change anytime soon.

Trevor Porter
9/15/2010

Kudos to the OGC, this seems to be the only reliable tax payer watchdog... give this office some prosecutioral teeth.. how dis ingenious of the minister.. Cabinet should never approve any contract before it is properly vetted through the "lower" processes.. anything else is a recipe for corruption.. a serious discussion is required on limiting the power of the Pm and cabinet... term limits is but another distraction.. so what they will rob/ plunder all they can within the limits. wake up folks..

Carlos Bryson
9/15/2010

Another newspaper alleges perjury has been comitted by the major players in this affair. what are the sanctions for perjury based on the laws of Jamaica? let's move forthwith, take no prisoners.
Dr. Tufton, my rising star...I am disappointed. Guess I should not have expected much, being a protege of Bruce Golding. No better herring, no better barrel.

Mike Ramsey
9/15/2010

It is plain we have some serious ethical issues as a people and as a government. In our haste to make things happen in our economy and by extension our country we are taking some serious short cuts which technically are illegal, but we convince ourselves this is in the interest of expediency. The decision we need to make is either we lower the bar of good governance or we clean up our act.

david smith
9/15/2010

All these years they still dont know a consultation different from regular employment? Hill really sick my stomach. He speaks about interest rates as if he cared for people when he was at the bank helping to keep it high there, and then boast how much profit they make. He comes now to be a blood sucker on the publuic purse, courtesy of his friend Tufton and the permanent secreatary. Dont ask how he sleep at nights, because he his well rested knowing that we cover his expenses. WICKED.

Carlos Bryson
9/15/2010

Why do these seemingly educated Jamaicans resort to malfeasance, deception and trickery? Where are our men of high affairs? I am personally scared as hell to enter into any business arrangement with a Jamaican, because all relationships in the past have been fraught with dis-honesty. We dont seem to place any value of transparency and accountability. There is more honor among thieves.

John Christian
9/15/2010

It has been suggested that Mr Christie is a Zealot with respect to the dictates of his mandate as Contractor General. I dissagree..These persons that are investigated are humans and as such have those features of human behaviour that need checks and balances..such as Greed Avarice,and power..they do not seem to posess Balance ,fairness and reasonablyness when it comes to their own re-muneration...therfore Mr Christie is necessary to put the BRAKES on them.

george watson
9/15/2010

It shouldn't be that a minister can just dismiss these recommendations out of hand and continue to do what he is doing.
It has to be that the CG can initiate criminal or civil proceedings To prevent airy fairy allegations the def. must be awarded costs against the state as a matter of course in the event of a vindication.
We shall be watching the PNP manifesto keenly to see how they will treat with the matter.
Surely govt. CAN be honest with the country's interest above everything else.

Barry Brown
9/15/2010

Good job, but why bother, I am yet to see anything or anyone brought to terms with their wrong doing....Beating the dead horse as they say....this is another one that is just going to linger and nothing is done...until these transgressions are made totally criminal, its just hot air.

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Christie recommends Hill be barred from Gov't boards