GOVERNMENT yesterday asked Auditor General Adrian Strachan and Contractor General Greg Christie to audit and investigate the ‘M4 Project’, under which some four million flourescent light bulbs were distributed islandwide, after it was revealed that the “free” bulbs from the Cuban Government have already cost taxpayers $114.7 million.

This amount could, however, rise to nearly $280 million if outstanding invoices submitted under the programme during the tenure of the previous Government are honoured by the new administration for the distribution of the bulbs which involved about 100 Cubans and 50 Jamaicans.

The minister of energy, mining and telecommunications, Clive Mullings, told Parliament yesterday that, since taking office last month, he was alarmed by the fact that the previous Government, through the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), had already paid out $114.7 million for the distribution of the energy- saving bulbs.

Of this amount, Mullings said $85 million was paid out to a company named Universal Management and Development Company Limited for “various services purported to be connected with the implementation of the project”.

According to the minister, the entity is not registered as a contractor or supplier with the National Contracts Commission, and was only incorporated around the time the islandwide distribution of the bulbs started last year.

“The services for which Universal Management and Development Company Limited was paid were not tendered, and no evidence found of any contract being awarded to the company in relation to the project as payments were made on presentation of itinerant invoices,” said the minister.

Also under the microscope is Caribbean Communications and Media Network Limited to which a further $3 million was paid out. According to Mullings, the “sole shareholder and director” of this company, which was incorporated on the same date as Universal Management and Development Company Limited, is “identical”.

The minister told the House that he was advised by the ministry that the “implementation of the project was carried out “on the periphery and was not subjected to its normal internal management, accounting and audit controls.

It was handled by a “monitoring committee” chaired by then minister of state in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, Kern Spencer.

Following on these payments, Mullings said additional invoices amounting to $162.4 million were submitted. He said a letter, dated August 30, 2007, from the state minister to the permanent secretary detailing the entities and amounts ‘legitimately owed’ by the PCJ was followed by an August 31, 2007 letter in which Spencer, “wrote to each supposed creditor advising them that their invoices had been verified and confirmed” and assuring that the “invoices will be honoured at the earliest possible date”.

According to Mullings, these invoices, if paid, would bring the total expenditure, not including expenses financed through members of parliament from the Social and Economic and Support Programme, to $276.5 million.

“This matter requires the most thorough investigation,” Mullings said.

The minister said, too, that in addition to the detailed audit to be carried out by the auditor general, the contractor general has been invited to investigate the circumstances in which such huge payments were made to the suppliers without the required procurement procedures being followed.

Attorney General Senator Dorothy Lightbourne has been asked to advise “whether the letters addressed to the supposed creditors, by the minister of state, constitute an acceptance of the invoices and a binding commitment on the part of the Government to make payments in relation thereto”.

In the meantime, instructions have been issued to the ministry not to make any further payments until the investigations are completed and a Cabinet decision taken.

Mullings was careful to point out that the four million bulbs, which were a gift to Jamaica by the Cuban Government, were “free of cost” and were given on condition that they are given to householders at all income levels free of cost.

The Cuban Government provided volunteers to assist in the distribution and installation of the bulbs, while the ministry and the PCJ were to be responsible for project implementation.

The Opposition yesterday, however, sought refuge in the Standing Order provisions governing sittings of the House, arguing that former state minister Spencer had not been given a copy of the statement by Mullings and as such was not “fully apprised” to make a proper response.

Former Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, who was in the Chamber at the time, said that “the matter being so weighty and grave” Spencer, who was responsible for the programme, should be allowed to respond.

After several tries by Spencer to make a response, the House decided that he be allowed to respond at a later date.

In a hastily drafted statement to the press, the Opposition People’s National Party yesterday said the statement by Mullings had been noted with “serious concern”. It said Paulwell would provide the House with a detailed response once he has been able “to investigate the claims made by Mullings”.

Some of the payments, outlined in a document tabled in Parliament yesterday, as being made to Universal Management under the Cuban light bulb programme.