Last week’s revelation by Energy Minister Clive Mullings that “free” fluorescent light bulbs from the Cuban Government have already cost taxpayers $114.7 million and could amount to near $280 million, is one of at least 10 business arrangements under the previous Government that the current administration is probing, and which are said to be causing a mixture of jitters and anticipation inside the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

Impeccable sources told the Sunday Observer that the new Government, intent on getting to the bottom of allegations of corruption during the last 18 years, has been going over the files of several business arrangements involving public and private officials associated with the last Government.

ne individual who they would like to see leave the party for good.

Sunday Observer sources say the labour ministry’s probe into the work permit programme is one of the more serious issues being investigated as there are claims of human trafficking associated with the programme.

Jamaica, our sources said, is being used as a transshipment point to traffic persons to other parts of the world.

Another primary concern is the alleged enslavement of foreigners, particularly in local homes.

Yesterday, Labour Minister Pearnel Charles denied that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government was on a witchhunt, but was emphatic that “wherever there is a scandal we are going after it”.

“Those breaking the law will face serious sanctions, and I do not care if it is a minister’s wife, a minister’s mother, or anybody’s mother who is breaking the law,” Charles declared.

According to Charles, the probe will examine “those seeking permits, those working without permits, and those employing persons without a work permit. We are going to clean up the system and bring order to the system.”

Added Charles: “We have named a three-man committee, and they are free to select two other persons to work with them. There will be an audit of the system, and I hope at the end of the day I will be guided by the responses so that many of the suspicions, many of the suss will be cleared up.”

Work permit holders were given until last Friday to report to the ministry for their status to be determined.

In addition, employers of foreigners are now required to have a Jamaican understudy the foreigners. “After three years, the work permit will not be renewed, because a Jamaican would have been trained to fill the position,” Charles said.

Charles maintained that prospective investors have been told that where there were no Jamaicans to fill the positions, work permits will be issued immediately after the application process was completed.

According to Sunday Observer sources, the expenditure in the Cuban bulb distribution programme was uncovered by a “special ministerial team”, resulting in Energy Minister Mullings asking Auditor-General Adrian Strachan and Contractor-General Greg Christie to audit and investigate the project under which some four million fluorescent light bulbs were distributed islandwide by Cuban and Jamaican volunteers.

Mullings has already cleared the Cuban volunteers of any wrongdoing.

Close attention is being given to payments made to Universal Management and Development Company Limited for “various services purported to be connected with the implementation of the project”. The probe spotlight has also been turned on Caribbean Communications and Media Network Limited. Both companies are said to have the same shareholder and director.

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller has instructed former Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, and his former junior minister, Kern Spencer, to give her a report on the programme by November 5.

PNP insiders say Simpson Miller was “stunned” by Mullings’ disclosure to the House on Tuesday, and has vowed to let the chips fall where they may.

Yesterday, neither PNP general-secretary Donald Buchanan nor the party’s chairman, Robert Pickersgill, could be reached for comment.

According to our sources, among the other business arrangements being looked into by the Government’s special team are the Trafigura file and Air Jamaica’s sale of the Kingston to London route to Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The Trafigura affair, as it came to be known, resulted in Colin Campbell resigning as information and development minister and general-secretary of the PNP after the Simpson-Miller Government soaked up flak for the PNP accepting a donation of $31 million from Trafigura last year.

Trafigura, which at the time lifted Nigerian crude oil for Jamaica on the world market, had said the money was payment on a commercial agreement, while the PNP said it was a donation for electioneering.

Eventually, Simpson Miller ordered the money returned which the PNP and Trafigura both said was done.