It’s not over yet
CAROLYN Warren’s problems are not over yet.
The Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament is insisting that the former head of National Energy Solutions Limited (NESOL) should be summoned to answer more questions before the committee at its next sitting.
Warren, who was also a director on the board of the Universal Service Fund (USF), and chaired the projects committee of the fund, resigned as head of NESOL in July, after the agency became embroiled in controversy, following revelations of her past criminal convictions. This was in addition to questions surrounding an employee of NESOL, Lawrence Pommells and his role as a signing officer during the period of vacation leave by the agency’s chief engineer, Anthony Brown.
At a previous meeting of the PAAC, Brown said upon his return from vacation leave in November 2017 he found that Pommells, who had previously reported to him, was appointed to act on his behalf, but had continued to function as a signing officer even after Brown’s return.
The PAAC also wants the board chairmen of the USF and NESOL to clarify outstanding questions.
At yesterday’s meeting of the PAAC, Opposition spokesman on energy, Phillip Paulwell insisted that Warren, who was not present at the previous sitting, should be made to return.
“There was this question about attendance to the committee… I just want to make it quite clear, in relation to persons who should or can appear before the committee, (because) there is some confusion that it is only public officers who are currently employed in the service. The law is quite clear, this committee can summon anybody to appear before it, in fact the committee can administer an oath, and just as in any court of the land persons can be charged with contempt, so too persons who do not observe summonses to appear before the committee. Whether you’re working in the public service or not, you can be summoned,” Paulwell stated.
Paulwell, Kingston East and Port Royal Member of Parliament, called attention to a $60-million contract between NESOL and Peak Energy Solutions Limited for work on 19 community access point (CAP) sites. There was no written agreement between the parties for the work which was carried out between October 2017 and July 2017. The contractor has so far been paid $12 million of the contract sum.
Paulwell said he was surprised that the Office of the Prime Minister (DPM) had acknowledged that there was no written contract between Peak Energy and NESOL, but had not commented any further on the matter.
“It does appear that there are many such instances of persons being contracted without a written contract,” he said. He explained that it was the projects committee, which Warren headed, that had contracted NESOL for the works which were carried out by Peak Energy.
He said that in light of these matters, the USF should submit to the committee a list of all the contracts that were approved under Warren’s leadership of its projects committee. “They are all related to the operations of NESOL where she was the managing director,” Paulwell stated.
“It is totally inappropriate. I am going to suggest that in light of these things that we have to have an early recall of NESOL and also to ensure that Mrs Warren is properly summoned to be present at that sitting,” he stressed.
According to responses from the OPM on matters related to NESOL and the USF, dated August 27, other contractors were engaged for the electrical upgrading of CAP locations. Paulwell is also questioning whether there were also any non-written contracts for these works.
“I cannot imagine a contract with Government that is not written. It is totally something outside of anything that I would have seen in all the years,” Committee Chairman Dr Wykeham McNeill remarked. “This needs further investigations and deeper inquiry.”
North West Manchester MP Mikael Phillips also stressed the importance of the board chairman of NESOL also appearing before the committee: “On the issue of the signing of the cheques the instructions would have to be given by the Board, the approval of projects would have to be given from the Board, the employment of persons which we questioned would have to be approved by the board itself.”
Chief Executive Officer of the USF, Camille Buchanan, who was criticised for the hiring of her daughter to the fund, separated from the company last month amidst the growing controversy surrounding NESOL and the USF.