GraceKennedy chief operating officer Don Wehby has been tipped to become the next chairman of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), the Business Observer has been reliably informed.

According to a highly placed source, a recommendation was made for Wehby to head the PCJ board but it is yet to be discussed at Cabinet. Efforts to reach Wehby, who was said to be on vacation, were unsuccessful and Energy Minister James Robertson was said to be off the island.

The move would put Wehby, a former Government senator, at the helm of one of the most scrutinised public agencies over the last few years.

Kathryn Phipps was appointed chairman of the PCJ board after former chairman Ian Moore was fired two years ago by then Energy Minister Clive Mullings. Moore was let go during an investigation into the purchase of ethanol by the PCJ under his stewardship.

The PCJ came under scrutiny again earlier this year when a forensic audit into the operations of the state-owned agency and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PETCOM) uncovered contract irregularities, poor management of the PetroCaribe Development Fund (PCDF) and an alleged cash-skimming scheme that “partly involved PCDF monies”, which the auditors recommended be referred to the police for further investigation.

PCJ managing director Ruth Potopsingh was dismissed following the findings. The audit was ordered by the Government shortly after Mullings exposed the Cuban light bulb scandal for which Kern Spencer, the then junior energy minister in the previous People’s National Party Government, and his then personal assistant Coleen Wright, are now before the courts on corruption charges.

In September 2007, Wehby resigned from his positions at GraceKennedy and its board of directors to serve for two years as a government senator and minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. He returned to GraceKennedy in July 2009.