LOCAL printers have scolded the Government for depriving at least 200 Jamaicans of jobs by contracting an American firm to print textbooks for primary schools and are demanding that the administration publish the contents of the $51-million contract.

They also suggested that the saving to be realised by sending the project abroad was too negligible for the jobs that were foregone locally and increased the potential for weakening the island’s printing industry.

The printers, in a signed statement sent to the media, also questioned the delay in the delivery of the books and asked whether the American printer, Von Hoffman Corporation, would benefit from devaluation of the Jamaican dollar.

“Will the Government be transparent enough to publish the contents of the contract and disclose to the public what the final cost to the taxpayer will be?” asked the seven firms — Stehpenson’s Litho Press, Phoenix Printers, United Printers, Pear Tree Press, Mapco Business Printers, Precision Graphics Successors and Lithographic Printers.

But last Friday Contractor-General Derrick McKoy insisted that there was nothing secret about the contract and said that Von Hoffman’s $51,680,418 bid was fixed, without any provision for exchange rate adjustments.

“The contract is a public document,” McKoy said. “You can go to the (education) ministry and look at the contract.”

Von Hoffman’s bid was six per cent below the next most competitive bid, the Gleaner Company’s $54,986,742. A third offer of J$55,941,100 made by a Trinidadian firm, Eniath’s Printing Services, was also seriously considered.

The contract provides for the printing of two million texts covering the core curriculum to be followed by about 315,000 students in the six to 11 age group in over 700 schools. While a large printing operation produced the core of the books on newsprint, paperboard covers and other finishing work would be handled by a number of small sub-contractors.

But the late delivery of the texts this year has served as an embarrassment for the Government, given that one of the reasons it gave for looking overseas for a printer was that local firms had, in the past, not met the education ministry’s delivery deadline.

Simmering resentment in the local industry over the decision to send the job abroad and the fact that the books have not yet arrived, although the new school year is heading into its second week, caused the matter to spill over into the public. Local printers have begun to question the terms of the contract itself.

“No American company will sign a contract in Jamaican dollars,” the printers argued in their statement, “so it is reasonable to presume that it was made out for the equivalent sum in US dollars at the time of quotation in November 2002. The dollar was then J$49.80 to US$1 and there was no two per cent cess on importation. Now it is nearly J$60 to US$1, a huge jump of almost 20 per cent.”

The group said that the local offer made a guarantee against escalation and asked what the Government would use to “pay the difference caused by devaluation plus the new two per cent cess”.

But McKoy told the Observer in an interview at his New Kingston office that the contract does not contemplate escalation. “It is a fixed price contract,” explained McKoy. Von Hoffman tendered in Jamaican dollars, he said.

The printers voiced their concerns after the Government, on the eve of the new school year, admitted that its own sluggishness in awarding the contract would result in late delivery of the texts.

“The contract was awarded late,” Edwin Thomas, the education ministry’s public relations officer, told the Observer two weeks ago.

The contract was awarded in June, three or four months behind its usual time, drawing criticism from the parliamentary Opposition and educators that it could affect the learning process of students.

But according to the seven printers, the contract was given out just as late, or even later to the local contractor last year. That firm was charged penalties for the late delivery, they said.

“What penalties will now be imposed on Von Hoffman for their late delivery?” the seven firms asked.

They also wanted to know whether Von Hoffman, given that they conduct no operations in Jamaica, would be responsible for distribution of the books and if that would be an additional cost to the country.

“The contract requires the printer to supply and deliver,” McKoy said. His response was supported by Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson, who told the Observer Friday that “delivery is a part of the contract”.

Henry-Wilson insisted, too, that the books were not late and said that the contractor was “performing within his contract and better”.

“They have a contract that says they must do something within x amount of weeks, which does not have anything to do with the school year,” the minister said. “If he does not, within the scheduled time, then it is considered late.”

But spokesman for the printers’ group, Richard Scholefield, said no one was questioning Von Hoffman’s ability to produce the books. “Von Hoffman’s capability is not an issue,” he told the Observer. “This is a Jamaican issue.”

“Why was the contract moved (from Jamaica) and the Jamaican workers and factories put out of work?” Scholefield asked, noting that local firms that won the contract in the past, as well as their sub-contractors, hired extra hands to deal with the volume of work.

In his case, Scholefield said that his firm, Stephenson’s Litho Press, hired 25 persons when it served as a sub-contractor a few years ago.