The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) says it found a conflict of interest in the awarding of contracts to communications firm Simber Productions by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) while the late Douglas Chambers was involved with both companies.

Chambers was chairman of the JUTC until he was shot dead by armed thugs outside the JUTC’s Spanish Town office on June 27.

Simber Productions is a communications company he owned jointly with Susan Simes, host of the popular CVM Television talk show, The Susan Show, which assists needy adults and children. Simber has been producing The Susan Show since it started airing in April 2005.

The OCG, in a report tabled in the Senate yesterday, said it found conflict of interest in the awarding of three contracts, worth $1.6 million, to Simber between March and July.

The OCG recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) carry out a thorough investigation into the award of the contracts, and that the Attorney General’s Office consider whether there was breach of duty on the part of the then JUTC board in how it dealt with the award of the contracts.

The OCG said that its investigations revealed that the contracts were awarded to Simber for the production of:

(a) a JUTC SmartCard feature on The Susan Show;

(b) a JUTC commercial; and

(c) a JUTC “Ride & Win Summer Bling” advertisement.

The contracts were awarded after an unsolicited offer from Simber Productions.

The OCG said that there was a conflict of interest on Chambers’ part, insofar as it pertained to the award of the contracts, and that he benefitted personally from the “irregular and/or improper” arrangement.

The report admitted that Chambers did make an oral declaration of his interest in Simber Productions to the JUTC board, but that this was done two weeks after Simber was contracted.

There was no documentary evidence of the Procurement Committee’s approval of bids from Simber, nor any evidence that a recommendation was made to the committee for approval, which is a breach of the Government’s Procurement Procedures Handbook (GPPH), the report said.

The OCG also accused Chambers and current chairman Bindley Sangster of making false declarations that the contracts were evaluated and approved by the JUTC Procurement Committee, when they were not.

In terms of the contracting of private security firm, Protection and Security Limited, to provide security services for the company, the OCG said it found no evidence of approval being sought or received from Cabinet or the National Contracts Commission (NCC), another breach of the Contractor-General’s Act and the GPPH.