GraceKennedy Limited, the Musson Group and Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica head Keith Duncan are the only three corporate Jamaica members the Government has named that helped to finance the US$99,000 contract awarded to Finn Partners to provide international communication services for Jamaica’s candidature for the Commonwealth secretary general post.

Revealing all parties involved in paying for the contract is among specific answers the Parliamentary Opposition has insisted it needs regarding expenditure on Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith’s failed contest for the position.

The contest took place during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Kigali, Rwanda, from June 20 to 25, 2022.

In providing answers to questions posed by Opposition spokesman Julian Robinson to Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Parliament, Information Minister Robert Morgan said only three contributors gave permission to be named.

Asked whether the three identified are the only contributors to the contract payment, Morgan said that they do not reflect the total number of contributors, but declined to name the others or to state what percentage of the total sum they contributed versus other companies involved.

“I would not be able to articulate that now. As I said before, the three have said we could reveal that they contributed, but I would not be able to give you a quantum as to how much each gave,” he said.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding, however, continued to press Morgan to state all who funded the Finn Partners contract.

“You don’t know who funded this contract….so you only know these three persons? You now that they were not the complete source of funds but you are not disclosing to Parliament after two months or whatever the period is who funded the contract?” he asked.

“You’ve named three here you have claimed gave permission; that’s really irrelevant. I want to know who were the parties funding the contract and how much did each contribute to that US$99,000,” Golding insisted.

But Morgan refused to budge, stating firmly that he had no further information to add.

In the meantime, Morgan expressed disappointment in the question to name all involved “because these persons participated because they believed, not in the Government, not in Kamina Johnson Smith, they believed in the candidature, that it was Jamaica’s candidature and that it would bring significant benefits to our society.”

“I suspect that a lot of them are saying to themselves why would we want to get into this controversy? We are legitimate businesses and individuals, we have contributed to Opposition conference and Opposition activities and Government activities and, in this case, we’re being dragged through the coals. I am disappointed but I’m hopeful that others will want to one day speak about their contribution to this candidature,” he said.

Robinson, however, insisted that nobody is being dragged through the mud, arguing that all parliamentarians are subject to public finance regulations.

“At an individual level we have to do integrity reports on an annual basis. The principles of accountability, which all of us have to participate in, and we would have been candidates in the general election where we had to declare who contributed to our campaign, it’s no different… the reality is the reason you have that level of accountability is to protect and to safeguard particular interests against having a disproportionate influence on policy, et cetera, and that is why we have public finance laws and guidelines,” the Opposition spokesman said.