Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller told Parliament last week that she has been unable to obtain a copy of the document signed by CCOC Association and Trafigura Beheer to facilitate the Dutch firm’s controversial $31 million contribution to the People’s National Party (PNP) last year.

The prime minister made the admission in response to supplementary questions from the leader of the opposition, Bruce Golding, during the March 20 meeting of the House of Representatives.

Golding: Mr Speaker, the prime minister says that she has not seen the documentation. In view of the importance of this documentation to the issue, can the prime minister advise the House whether she sought to, but failed to obtain a copy of the documentation?

Simpson Miller: My advice is that no such documentation was available, that the donor or donors had the documentation and it was not available. I did ask. I was not able to attain it.

Golding: Was the prime minister able to ascertain two things: the precise nature of the study of the bauxite industry which was to be undertaken; and the terms of the payment that were to be made in respect of that?

Simpson Miller: My response is as before. No, I was not able to.

Golding’s follow-up questions were in regard to Simpson Miller’s earlier answer that the document which facilitated the $31 million contribution from the Dutch oil trader to the PNP was signed by representatives of both Trafigura and CCOC (Colin Campbell Our Candidate) Association.

The prime minister also said that the document was a service agreement, the subject of which was, ostensibly, a consultancy agreement, whereby CCOC Association undertook to do a study of the bauxite industry.

Golding asked the prime minister whether she had been able to ascertain from Senator Campbell, given his association with CCOC Association and given his own ministerial responsibility to the bauxite sector at the time, which representative of CCOC Association signed this document?

The prime minister said, no.

At this point Derrick Smith, the leader of opposition business in the House intervened. “Mr Speaker,” he said, “the prime minister did confirm in one of the answers, I haven’t got a copy of the answers, that there…

Donald Buchanan (minister of information): You getting out of you pants and I going put you back in you pants.

The Speaker: Mr. Buchanan!

Buchanan: Mr Speaker, I apologise most profoundly.

Smith: Thank you, Mr Speaker. In relation to the donation, will the prime minister tell the House, in Jamaican dollars, exactly how much the donation was?

Delroy Chuck (North East St Andrew): Yes, very appropriate question.

(Government members, however, tried to shout down the leader of opposition business).

Smith: You think anybody over there can frighten me? Well, unnu shut up and let me ask the question. Sorry, Mr Speaker. Part two of the question is, in Jamaican dollars, exactly how much was returned?

Robert Pickersgill (minister of housing, transport, water & works) to the Opposition members: Don’t talk anything bout short pants, y’know. Whenever your party in power somebody always wear short pants, so shut you mouth.

Simpson Miller: Mr Smith, the $31-million was returned to Trafigura.

Smith: Mr Speaker, the question was in two sections, exactly how much was the original figure, in Jamaican dollars, and how much was returned. I think there was an answer in relation to how much was returned.

Simpson Miller: The amount donated, Mr Speaker, was the amount returned to Trafigura.

Earlier this month, Trafigura said it had received the funds that Simpson Miller had ordered returned on October 8 last year.

Simpson Miller had ordered the money returned after the Government and the PNP came under heavy flak for accepting the funds, given that Trafigura, at the time, was contracted by the Government to lift and sell Nigerian crude for Jamaica on the world oil market.

The $31 million was transferred to a local bank account held by CCOC Association for the PNP.

The ruling party said the money was a donation for electioneering, but Trafigura later claimed that it was payment on a commercial agreement. The scandal resulted in the resignation of then information minister and PNP general-secretary Colin Campbell.