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Why would the board at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which was mandated to root out corruption, approve an untendered contract to a company in which slain chairman, Douglas Chambers, was a major player? This is among several issues which have surfaced as investigators search for motives behind Chambers’ assassination on June 27.
And that is not all. Based on reports reaching the Sunday Herald, contracts worth millions of dollars were awarded to members of the violent, politically connected One Order and Klansman gangs. And the JUTC was said to have been buying fuel from a private marketing company at 28 per cent more than it could get it from the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam).
Transport Minister Mike Henry said he was not aware of any such decisions, if they were in fact so, since he was not involved in the daily operations of the company.
Minister Henry, who took over interim chairmanship only a week ago, said he would seek answers to these questions from the board and the relevant managers.
However, board member Bindley Sangster said it was a fact that the company bought fuel from Cool Oasis at a higher rate than it could get the commodity from Shell or Petrojam. He said this was on the basis that Cool Oasis provided pumps, credit and transportation, which the JUTC could not afford.
A contract, according to sources, was awarded to Chambers’ promotion company without competitive tender. Yesterday, Minister Henry said he was aware of an advertising contract administered by the Port Authority of Jamaica, which was awarded through competitive tender for the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre, but was not aware of the details.
Sangster said he was not aware of any contract with any company owned by the late chairman. “The late chairman did advise the board that a company connected to him initiated contact with the JUTC to provide services without his knowledge. And they were discussing some public relations programme. We were satisfied that everything was above board,“ Sangster said.
Contracts for bushing and security were reportedly given to gangsters, sources disclosed. One such contract to members of the Klansman gang for over $2 million was said to have been approved but not signed, shortly before Chambers was killed. Members of the Klansman gang control the area where the Spanish Town bus depot is located. Henry said it would not surprise him if work was given to members of the gang, but he would have to find out if this was done under duress. While not denying the matter, Sangster said the board was not aware of it and, in any case, the management would handle any such matter.
Successive JUTC boards have had to deal with these gangs, but none chose to formally engage either of them, according to sources. It is believed that Chambers chose to engage them as a security compromise in the interest of maintaining the peace in the area, instead of using only state security. Sources close to the decision-making process said the former chairman felt he had to neutralise, if not control, the Klansman operatives in the area, whose members are aligned to the opposition People’s National Party (PNP). Chambers, they said, believed that the One Order gang, which is aligned to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was a natural ally, hence there was no need to worry about them.
But this was not reportedly without problems, as One Order members said to be based in the Shelter Rock community, were said to have maintained that since their party was in power, they ought to get the lion’s share of the spoils. It is not clear what, if anything, was done to appease them, and reports were that the relationship with them soured.
Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Les Green, distanced the investigations from these reports.
“ I have no comment. We have some good information. From indications, it appears that Mr. Chambers’ death was linked to his job,” Green said.
He also dismissed reports that a burnt-out mini van with human remains that was found in St. Catherine was connected to Chambers’ death.
Chambers was an accountant and a specialist fraud investigator brought in by the Golding administration on a token salary, to reform the transit company. Critics questioned the claim of token salary, saying the anti-corruption campaigner was provided with a fully maintained SUV, paid telephone bills and other perks, which cost the company thousands of dollars monthly.
Critics say while blocking several holes, the company, which was losing millions of dollars annually, partly because of petty scams and a padded staff, with almost 10 workers for each functioning bus at one stage, appeared to have opened some. On the day he died, Chambers had finalised redundancy terms for 485 workers.
Chambers was asked to chair the board of the JUTC and inherited a situation that is similar to most public transportation systems across the globe; grossly under-funded, always struggling to find efficiency, strong union presence, and operating a fare system that is way below the overall economic cost factor.
Critics say the JUTC was being positioned by the government as a model of how mismanaged state companies could be successfully turned around.
And that is not all. Based on reports reaching the Sunday Herald, contracts worth millions of dollars were awarded to members of the violent, politically connected One Order and Klansman gangs. And the JUTC was said to have been buying fuel from a private marketing company at 28 per cent more than it could get it from the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam).
Transport Minister Mike Henry said he was not aware of any such decisions, if they were in fact so, since he was not involved in the daily operations of the company.
Minister Henry, who took over interim chairmanship only a week ago, said he would seek answers to these questions from the board and the relevant managers.
However, board member Bindley Sangster said it was a fact that the company bought fuel from Cool Oasis at a higher rate than it could get the commodity from Shell or Petrojam. He said this was on the basis that Cool Oasis provided pumps, credit and transportation, which the JUTC could not afford.
A contract, according to sources, was awarded to Chambers’ promotion company without competitive tender. Yesterday, Minister Henry said he was aware of an advertising contract administered by the Port Authority of Jamaica, which was awarded through competitive tender for the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre, but was not aware of the details.
Sangster said he was not aware of any contract with any company owned by the late chairman. “The late chairman did advise the board that a company connected to him initiated contact with the JUTC to provide services without his knowledge. And they were discussing some public relations programme. We were satisfied that everything was above board,“ Sangster said.
Contracts for bushing and security were reportedly given to gangsters, sources disclosed. One such contract to members of the Klansman gang for over $2 million was said to have been approved but not signed, shortly before Chambers was killed. Members of the Klansman gang control the area where the Spanish Town bus depot is located. Henry said it would not surprise him if work was given to members of the gang, but he would have to find out if this was done under duress. While not denying the matter, Sangster said the board was not aware of it and, in any case, the management would handle any such matter.
Successive JUTC boards have had to deal with these gangs, but none chose to formally engage either of them, according to sources. It is believed that Chambers chose to engage them as a security compromise in the interest of maintaining the peace in the area, instead of using only state security. Sources close to the decision-making process said the former chairman felt he had to neutralise, if not control, the Klansman operatives in the area, whose members are aligned to the opposition People’s National Party (PNP). Chambers, they said, believed that the One Order gang, which is aligned to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was a natural ally, hence there was no need to worry about them.
But this was not reportedly without problems, as One Order members said to be based in the Shelter Rock community, were said to have maintained that since their party was in power, they ought to get the lion’s share of the spoils. It is not clear what, if anything, was done to appease them, and reports were that the relationship with them soured.
Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Les Green, distanced the investigations from these reports.
“ I have no comment. We have some good information. From indications, it appears that Mr. Chambers’ death was linked to his job,” Green said.
He also dismissed reports that a burnt-out mini van with human remains that was found in St. Catherine was connected to Chambers’ death.
Chambers was an accountant and a specialist fraud investigator brought in by the Golding administration on a token salary, to reform the transit company. Critics questioned the claim of token salary, saying the anti-corruption campaigner was provided with a fully maintained SUV, paid telephone bills and other perks, which cost the company thousands of dollars monthly.
Critics say while blocking several holes, the company, which was losing millions of dollars annually, partly because of petty scams and a padded staff, with almost 10 workers for each functioning bus at one stage, appeared to have opened some. On the day he died, Chambers had finalised redundancy terms for 485 workers.
Chambers was asked to chair the board of the JUTC and inherited a situation that is similar to most public transportation systems across the globe; grossly under-funded, always struggling to find efficiency, strong union presence, and operating a fare system that is way below the overall economic cost factor.
Critics say the JUTC was being positioned by the government as a model of how mismanaged state companies could be successfully turned around.
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