Photo by Janet Silvera
Chief executive officer of investor group Seawind Key Investments, Salvadaor Luque (second left), shows government officials Prime Minister Bruce Golding (left), Minister of Energy Clive Mullings (third left) and Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett a model of the two new hotels, 'Wild Orchid' and 'Secrets St James', currently under construction at Montego Freeport in Montego Bay.
THE PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) is contending that more questionable operations are taking place in the Ministry of Transport and Works aside from the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) fiasco.
The ministry has been embroiled in a scandal over the last week following revelations by Contractor General Greg Christie that the bus company's procurement committee breached Government procurement policy in its award of a contract to a company in which its late chairman, Douglas Chambers, was a majority shareholder.
In the report, Christie recommended that criminal charges be laid against acting president Bindley Sangster for presenting false reports to the contractor general during his investigation of the breaches.
Three directors of the company resigned on the weekend as a result of the debacle, including Sangster, who has resigned as chairman of the procurement committee and has been sent on leave of absence from his post as acting president by Transport Minister Mike Henry until the Director of Public Prosecutions rules on the matter.
But in a release to the press yesterday, Opposition Spokesperson on Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, said the JUTC was not the only department within the Ministry of Transport where questionable operations were occurring. He pointed fingers at operations taking place within the Transport Authority.
Contagion
"We (the Opposition) are of the view that there is a contagion within the Ministry of Transport and Works that goes beyond the JUTC and now the Transport Authority," he said.
"The prime minister may have to intervene sooner rather than later," he added.
Pickersgill said the PNP welcomed the resignation of the three JUTC directors, but the party was demanding Prime Minister Bruce Golding break his silence on the issue.
According to Pickersgill, in July, Henry said internal investigations at the company had found nothing untoward in respect of the procurement practices at the JUTC.
"Now that the minister's reckless predictions have been proven to be groundless," Pickersgill said, "the issue now rests squarely in the hands of the prime minister to act decisively in restoring the confidence of the public in the management of the Ministry of Transport and Works."