KINGSTON, Jamaica — Mayor of Port Maria Richard Creary says he is taking legal action against the Gleaner Company for an article it published based on a report from the Integrity Commission on his role as a member of the board of the Petrojam oil refinery.

Creary confirmed Friday that his lawyers have written the Gleaner twice on the issue and, although the newspaper has responded to both correspondences, he has decided to go ahead with the legal action. The Port Maria mayor is being represented by Robert Collie, senior partner at Collie Law Firm in Kingston.

In a release to the press, Creary expressed dissatisfaction with the responses from the Gleaner to the letters from Collie making the charges. He noted that he is acting on the advice and instructions from the law firm.

“I don’t wish to go into the legal details, but I will certainly make my attorney available to the press to explain them,” he told OBSERVER ONLINE.

The Gleaner article of July 1, 2020, which was based on a report issued by the Integrity Commission on alleged acts of nepotism and cronyism at the refinery, stated that “some of the people implicated in the Petrojam scandal were so strategically placed in positions at the oil refinery that the Integrity Commission is questioning whether they formed part of corruption-enabling mechanisms”.

This was based on the commission’s report that the mayor’s name was included, as part of an alleged scheme of nepotism and cronyism at the Petrojam refinery, including his presence at a board meeting which selected former general manager Floyd Grindley for that position.

However, the commission eventually admitted that it erred when it reported that Creary was present at the meeting at which Grindley was interviewed for the job. In an apology to Creary, the commission said it “sincerely regrets its error and wishes to unreservedly apologise to you for any distress, embarrassment or inconvenience that it may have caused you”.

However, Creary says that although an apology has been forthcoming from the commission, the Gleaner newspaper article has had a devastating and negative impact on his “reputation and unblemished political career”.

Creary said that he hopes that his action will ensure that in the future, no one’s name will be muddied “unnecessarily or carelessly”, in a manner which can have long lasting and crippling effects on one’s career, business and reputation.

Balford Henry