No political will to fight corruption in Jamaica, says contractor general

Friday, October 28, 2011

CONTRACTOR General Greg Christie, in delivering the Seventh Annual Lecture in the Caribbean International Network (CIN) Lecture Series in New York Wednesday night, listed several reasons which he said substantiate his view that there is a lack of political will to seriously fight corruption in public contracting in Jamaica.

In a 90-minute presentation, which was delivered to members of the Jamaican and Caribbean Diaspora, Christie cited, among other things, critical deficiencies that have existed in the Contractor General Act for 28 years, which no administration had seen it fit to fix.

In particular, Christie alluded to the failure of the state to entrench the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) in the Constitution of Jamaica to protect it from political interference, to give the OCG the power to halt a government contracting process that was exhibiting signs of corruption or irregularity, and to increase the sanctions for criminal offences under the Act.

He also chronicled a slew of obstacles which he has had to face in the discharge of his mandates under the Contractor General Act. Among these he alluded to were the administration's double standard on the issue of state asset divestments, attempts at intimidation and politicisation of the OCG, the lack of prosecutions regarding matters that had been referred by the OCG to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the failure on the part of public bodies, earlier in his tenure, to comply with the lawful requisitions of the OCG.

In his wide-ranging address, the contractor general also listed over 25 formal remedial recommendations which he said had been made by the OCG to the legislative and the executive arms of the state, but which, to date, had been essentially ignored.

The recommendations, Christie said, had been made in a concerted and diligent effort on the part of the OCG to significantly enhance transparency, competition, accountability and probity in public contracting in Jamaica; to ensure compliance with the government's Procurement Procedures and Guidelines and to eliminate waste and inefficiency in the award and implementation of contracts.

They were also to prevent fraud and corruption in government contracting; to strengthen the independence of the OCG; and to generally win the battle against corruption in Jamaica.

Christie said that if the OCG's recommendations had been given priority attention, and speedily and comprehensively implemented by successive administrations, they would have already radically reshaped the entire landscape of the Jamaican public sector contract award processes.

He said that tremendous value would have accrued to the taxpayers and the people of Jamaica — not only in the reduction of waste and corruption — but also in the form of enhanced transparency, probity, accountability, competition and value for money in the award of lucrative government contracts.

Christie, who said that he would be demitting office in November next year, warned that "the destiny of the OCG is one that which remains firmly in the hands of the government, the Parliament and, ultimately, in the hands of the Jamaican people.

"Make no mistake about it. The problems and the challenges that I have sought to overview with you... which have confronted the OCG and me, will persist as long as the OCG's many remedial recommendations continue to be ignored," he said.

"They will remain with us until and unless the OCG is granted independent criminal investigatory powers, independent prosecutorial powers, police powers of arrest, and the power to halt or to regularise a government contracting process that is exhibiting the signs of corruption, impropriety or irregularity."

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No political will to fight corruption in Jamaica, says contractor general