CONTRACTOR GENERAL Greg Christie earned the ire of attorney-at-law Ernest Smith last week, after Christie opened an investigation into State Minister Joseph Hibbert's actions in connection with British firm Mabey and Johnson.

Smith, a Government backbencher and private counsel to Hibbert, has labelled the contractor general "irresponsible", and warned that his overly enthusiastic behaviour would cause him to "one day digest the venom of his own spleen".

"I don't say that he is not a good person in his job, but he has become so enthusiastic that he does not verify his facts before he issues statements," Smith told The Gleaner yesterday.

formal investigation

The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) last week announced that it has commenced a formal investigation into allegations of corruption and irregularity that are related to bridge-building contracts that were awarded to Mabey and Johnson Limited while Hibbert was the chief technical director in the transport and works ministry.

The OCG's investigation will be directed primarily at determining the precise role, if any, played by Hibbert, the Member of Parliament for East Rural St Andrew and state minister in the Ministry of Transport and Works; and businessman Deryck A Gibson, in the facilitation, procurement, awarding, implementation, execution and/or variation of some contracts.

The OCG is also to determine whether there is any merit to allegations that questionable payments, totalling millions of United States dollars, were made or transferred by Mabey and Johnson to certain specified persons and/or into certain bank accounts in relation to the contracts.

Christie's office said information received from the Jamaica Constabulary Force suggests that several of the alleged referenced payments were made to, for the benefit of, and/or on the account of Hibbert between 1993 and 2003.

However, Smith felt the contractor general's statement was unfair to his client and government colleague, whose integrity he said has now been questioned.

"The contractor general is very irresponsible. For him to cast those kinds of aspersions and innuendoes at our client, he is very irresponsible and downright out of order, and his release demonstrates the greatest degree of insensitivity and irresponsibility," Smith said.

It is alleged that individuals benefited improperly from association with the bridge-building company. As part of a fraud investigation, members of Britain's Serious Fraud Office visited Jamaica and raided the homes of Hibbert and Gibson.

Smith claims Hibbert has been a victim of crooks who used his name to defraud Mabey and Johnson and sent the money to bank accounts in some far away land.