KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Government entered into a number of other arrangements with marketing and public relations firm Market Me Consulting Limited, totalling $19.4 million, separate from the $54.8 million for two Jamaica Moves contracts and a further $13 million, all of which are now the subject of public scrutiny. 

The arrangements involved services to the Ministry of Health’s four health regions and the National Family Planning Board (NFPB).

The disclosure came at yesterday’s meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), as the Market Me/ministry of health controversy continues to snowball with documentation, and claims and counterclaims over two multi-million dollar contracts inked between the ministry and the marketing consultancy firm between June 2017 and June 2019.

Permanent secretary Dunstan Bryan, while emphasising that the regional authorities are autonomous bodies, and that the contracts including the one with the NFPB had nothing to do with Jamaica Moves, cautioned against insinuations that the ministry had engaged in splintering contracts.

 “It’s important that we do not see the entire sum as one contract. A day-to-day decision is made on all of these activities and sometimes a unit may make a decision to hire someone and they don’t necessarily consult with another unit who may be negotiating to hire that same someone. The contracts are purchase orders in most instances so they’re not things that would percolate to procurement,” he said.

Meanwhile, there are questions about whether work on the Jamaica Moves campaign started prior to the signing of the first contract with the company in June 2017. Bryan told the committee that the launch of the campaign two months prior to the contract signing, was a ministry endorsed one but that it was a Market Me event. 

Asked about a payment made on March 26, 2017 to Market Me for Jamaica Moves tents, the permanent secretary explained that it was a reimbursement to the company. It is unclear whether the tents were those used at the Emancipation Park launch. “I’m not sure because there were several events after the launch,” Bryan said. 

Government members of the committee argued that the firm was an established one that already had private sector financing at the time when it presented an unsolicited proposal to the health ministry. Another cause for question was the not-yet-located evaluation document for proposal, which the ministry would have had to submit to the National Contracts Commission in order to justify the award of contract.

“I know that there is a missing element. I’ve not yet seen the evaluation report but I know that in order to have made the proposal to NCC there would have to have been that type of analysis done. What we have on record now is the actual presentation that was done by Market Me. We have contacted the NCC and they’re doing their search as well,” he told the committee.

That technical team comprised the minister of health, the then permanent secretary, and the technical heads of all the ministry’s branches.

On the issue of the ownership of the Jamaica Moves brand, which Bryan noted has been turned over to the Attorney General’s Department, the permanent secretary said the company advised in 2018, prior to the second contract, that it had registered Jamaica Moves as its own but that it was understood at the time that the matter was to be “clarified”. 

Bryan said the reason Market Me gave at the time for registering the brand was that it was under threat from other entities. “At the time of the negotiation of the  (second) contract it was intimated to the government that there was reason to protect the brand because it was subject to capture so the firm moved to protect it. It was our understanding that the registration of the intellectual property should (be in the name of) the Government of Jamaica, ” he said. 

The permanent secretary noted that it was explicit in the contract that the ownership would be transferred to the Government.

Alphea Saunders