DESPITE a consistent flood of criticisms from government members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Contractor-General Greg Christie insisted yesterday that the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) misled Parliament and the people about the award of contracts to 24 consultants on the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel project in Westmoreland.

Christie stood by his statement in a letter to UDC CEO/President Marjorie Campbell on September 14 that, “we have concluded that your objective has been to substantially mislead the Parliament and people of Jamaica into believing that your procurement of consultants on the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel project was not carried out in violation of applicable government procurement procedures and guidelines”. The letter was distributed at yesterday’s meeting.

Opposition members, especially committee chairman, Audley Shaw and members Delroy Chuck and Joe Hibbert, had to come to the defence of Christie on several occasions as government members, led by back-bencher K D Knight, kept up a barrage of questions.

Knight accused the contractor-general of falling down on the job by failing to press for missing documents from the UDC. Government members also said that Christie had sent in an incomplete report to Parliament condemning the UDC before obtaining all the available information.

At one stage, under the constant attacks, Christie confessed that he had only eight inspectors to cover over 220 public sector departments.

“The whole business of public procurement is something which needs urgent attention. I have been in office for only nine months and I have already had cause to report, in my last report to this Honourable House, that we are faced with what appears to be insurmountable problems,” Christie said.

“There appears to be a culture on the part of some public bodies.in terms of complying with government-established procurement procedures with respect to the award of contracts, and also complying with requisitions emanating from the Office of the Contractor General for information,” said Christie.

He added that the UDC was among the agencies that have consistently refused to abide by the procurement requirements.

Although the National Contracts Committee (NCC) became effective in 1999, interim procurement guidelines came into effect in October 2000, and the Government Procurement Procedures Handbook (GPPH) was published in May 2001, the UDC hired 24 consultants on the Whitehouse project in October 2001, without observing the rules, the contractor-general said.

Christie originally made the charge on September 6 after the UDC published an advertisement in the press claiming that the consultants were hired prior to the rules coming into effect. He had asked the UDC to produce evidence to support that claim within five working days.

However, a letter from Campbell to him on September 13, which claimed that the consultants were “selected” prior to the publication of the guidelines in May 2001 and that the interim guidelines issued in 2000 did not include consultants, failed to convince Christie and he accused the UDC of changing its story again.

“We hold firm to our assertion that you are constantly changing your story and that it appears that you have deliberately adopted a course of action which is intended to mislead the public into believing that no government procurement procedures and guideline were breached by you,” Christie said.

The contractor general will return to the PAC next Tuesday morning.