THE Office of the Contractor General (OCG) raided the headquarters of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica last week, as it responded to reports that breaches of procedure may have transpired in the awarding of a contract, Caribbean Business Report (CBR) has learnt.

A reliable source at the Postal Corporation told CBR, under condition of anonymity, that: “Last Friday, six or seven senior officers from the Office of the Contractor General entered the Central Sorting Office and seized documents in a matter concerning the awarding of a contract by the Postal Corporation of Jamaica. It has come to our attention that proper procedure may not have been adhered to.”

When CBR contacted the OCG in an effort to corroborate the report, we were told that Contractor General Dirk Harrison will not be speaking to the media on the matter at this time.

Last Saturday, the chairman of the Postal Corporation, Lance Hylton, sent out an e-mail to other board members, a copy of which was obtained by CBR.

“I regret to advise that our in-house attorney, Marsha Francis, has tendered her resignation, citing the trauma and outrage resulting from the raid of the contractor general,” the e-mail said.

“I have attempted (so far unsuccessfully) to convince her to reconsider.

“I have discussed the specific matter of the unlawful and unprecedented seizure of the confidential and privileged files of our attorney with the minister, the president of the Bar Association, and others, and you will hear more about this,” Hylton’s e-mail said.

The Postal Corporation of Jamaica is a government company and its procurement and contracting process is governed by the public sector procurement regulation.