THE innards of a questionable $31-million donation by Dutch oil-lifting firm Trafigura Beheer to the People’s National Party (PNP) Government in 2006 which has enthralled the country for 15-plus years will this week be exposed when top party officials begin to testify in open court.

The headline-grabbing affair, which is scheduled to begin airing in the Supreme Court this morning, follows on the 2021 edict of the Privy Council in London, and should run until March 14.

The matter had been escalated to the Privy Council by party officials after the Court of Appeal, in 2017, dismissed an appeal against a 2011 Supreme Court ruling that former Prime Minister and PNP President Portia Simpson Miller, as well as Phillip Paulwell, Robert Pickersgill, Colin Campbell, and Norton Hinds should testify in open court about the donation.

The salacious “Trafigura Affair” was brought to public attention in October 2006 by then Opposition Leader Bruce Golding who revealed that the firm, which traded oil for Jamaica on the international market, had donated $31 million to an account operated by Campbell – the CCOC Association. At the time, Campbell was the minister of information and development and also general secretary of the PNP. The money was transferred to the account just prior to the PNP’s annual conference that year.

Conflictingly, Trafigura Beheer said the money was part of a commercial agreement, while the PNP maintained that it was a donation to the party. It is illegal under Dutch law for companies to make donations to political parties.

“They made the offer. They said that they know elections are imminent in Jamaica and they are intending to make a contribution,” Campbell told journalists at a news conference in October 2006 at the PNP headquarters. He also told journalists that CCOC stood for “nothing in particular”, and that the account was simply one the party used to deposit campaign finances.

However, the Jamaica Observer later found that CCOC meant ‘Colin Campbell Our Candidate’ and was an association formed by a group of his supporters.

The resultant scandal cast a shroud over the party’s image and Campbell resigned as general secretary and from the Cabinet. A few days later, Simpson Miller reported that the money had been sent back.

The matter, however, refused to die and just over a year later, in November 2007, Golding, who was by then prime minister, told Parliament that the Dutch police believed Trafigura Beheer had bribed Jamaican public officials in 2006. Consequently, the Parliament, on November 20, 2007, passed a resolution giving the Dutch investigators permission to probe the donation to the PNP.

The National Public Prosecutor’s Office (NPPO) of The Netherlands was hell bent on questioning the five appellants about the payment which was made while Trafigura had an oil-lifting agreement with Jamaica.

Between December 2007 and May 2009, the NPPO wrote various letters to Jamaica’s Director of Public Prosecutions requesting assistance in the form of taking evidence from the appellants on oath or affirmation.

But the five insisted that they had no information that could assist the Dutch investigation and argued that the taking of their evidence in open court would contravene their rights under the constitution, on the basis that section 16(3), which requires “proceedings” to be in open court, did not apply to the taking of evidence under the Mutual Assistance (Criminal Matters) Act (MACMA).

In the 2017 appeal hearing, then Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Andrea Martin-Swaby had reiterated that the common law rule dictates that all court proceedings should be held in open court, except in certain circumstances, and that the open court justice is enshrined in Jamaica’s constitution.

Defence attorneys for the five contended that the judge who had refused their application erred in his ruling. They also argued that the individuals cannot be compelled to cooperate with requesting foreign states; the treaties have to be subjected to Jamaican laws; they already indicated they know nothing about alleged bribery in respect to Trafigura, and could not help the Dutch authorities any further.

But the Court of Appeal, in dismissing the appeal, ruled that the proceedings brought under the MACMA are subject to the principles of open justice as mentioned in Section 16 (3) of the constitution, and that the ruling of the judge that these proceedings should be conducted in open court is correct in law.

In its 2021 judgement, the Privy Council said, “The nature of the matter under investigation is one which is capable of affecting the polity of the country. This is highly relevant to whether the evidence should be taken in public and was not a matter given undue weight.There was no material before the court to lead to the conclusion that a public hearing might jeopardise the investigation in The Netherlands, or any subsequent investigation or proceedings which might follow in Jamaica. In any event, should such an investigation or proceedings ensue, that would be a question to be addressed within those proceedings”.

“It should also be recalled that the appellants were given the opportunity to give their evidence in private but did not avail themselves of that opportunity, thus leading to the request made in the ninth supplementary letter. We see no basis for concluding that the discretion was other than properly exercised,” it said further.

Jamaica’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions then set about preparing for the matter to get under way in the courts here.

Former PNP senator KD Knight is the lead attorney in the matter.