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PM: 'Joe received payment' from Maybey
By PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, September 28, 2009
Prime Minister Bruce Golding told a Jamaica Labour Party conference yesterday that embattled former state minister Joseph Hibbert has admitted to taking money from disgraced British bridge-building firm Maybey and Johnson but that the payments were not for corrupt means nor were the amounts as high as being alleged.
Hibbert's admission, according to Golding, came at the time he decided to resign his post as minister of state in the works ministry.
Karl Samuda left, listens as Prime Minister Bruce Golding addresses The Jamaica Labour Party held conference yesterday.
"I had discussions with Joe about a year ago when this matter was first brought to my attention and Joe assured me of his innocence," Golding told Labourites at a conference in downtown Kingston.
"What Joe communicated to me was that whatever payments he received from Maybey and Johnson related to expenses that were incurred on a number of occasions when he would travel to England to go and inspect bridge material and bridge designs and the various things that were going to be supplied to Jamaica. He indicated that whatever moneys he received was nowhere near what is being alleged, said Golding about the East Rural St Andrew member of parliament.
Golding, who spoke on the issue during a lengthy speech on the state of the nation's economy, said he advised Hibbert to take action to clear his name, if what he had admitted was true.
"As I have indicated to Joe, if the payments were legitimate, then he has a duty to himself and indeed to the government to so demonstrate and clear his name, and also to remove any association of wrongdoing so far as the government is concerned," Golding said.
The prime minister said that he had warned his ministers to be careful with the decisions they take and have advised them to seek his guidance should they come upon any situation over which they are doubtful.
"Bear in mind that you can be set up. People can seek to compromise you," said Golding.
Hibbert, who resigned his ministry post in July, was on Friday named as one of a dozen politicians and officials who were allegedly paid kickbacks by the British firm, after it pleaded guilty to systematically paying bribes for favours around the world.
Maybey and Johnson was fined £6.6 million in a landmark ruling in court Friday following a probe by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
During the trial yesterday, Queen's Counsel for the SFO, John Hardy, alleged that Hibbert collected £100,000 over an eight-year period for favours, including a contract valued at £14 million.
The alleged bribe was said to have been paid in the 1990s when Hibbert, an engineer, worked as chief technical director in the works ministry under the previous People's National Party government.
By PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, September 28, 2009
Prime Minister Bruce Golding told a Jamaica Labour Party conference yesterday that embattled former state minister Joseph Hibbert has admitted to taking money from disgraced British bridge-building firm Maybey and Johnson but that the payments were not for corrupt means nor were the amounts as high as being alleged.
Hibbert's admission, according to Golding, came at the time he decided to resign his post as minister of state in the works ministry.
Karl Samuda left, listens as Prime Minister Bruce Golding addresses The Jamaica Labour Party held conference yesterday."I had discussions with Joe about a year ago when this matter was first brought to my attention and Joe assured me of his innocence," Golding told Labourites at a conference in downtown Kingston.
"What Joe communicated to me was that whatever payments he received from Maybey and Johnson related to expenses that were incurred on a number of occasions when he would travel to England to go and inspect bridge material and bridge designs and the various things that were going to be supplied to Jamaica. He indicated that whatever moneys he received was nowhere near what is being alleged, said Golding about the East Rural St Andrew member of parliament.
Golding, who spoke on the issue during a lengthy speech on the state of the nation's economy, said he advised Hibbert to take action to clear his name, if what he had admitted was true.
"As I have indicated to Joe, if the payments were legitimate, then he has a duty to himself and indeed to the government to so demonstrate and clear his name, and also to remove any association of wrongdoing so far as the government is concerned," Golding said.
The prime minister said that he had warned his ministers to be careful with the decisions they take and have advised them to seek his guidance should they come upon any situation over which they are doubtful.
"Bear in mind that you can be set up. People can seek to compromise you," said Golding.
Hibbert, who resigned his ministry post in July, was on Friday named as one of a dozen politicians and officials who were allegedly paid kickbacks by the British firm, after it pleaded guilty to systematically paying bribes for favours around the world.
Maybey and Johnson was fined £6.6 million in a landmark ruling in court Friday following a probe by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
During the trial yesterday, Queen's Counsel for the SFO, John Hardy, alleged that Hibbert collected £100,000 over an eight-year period for favours, including a contract valued at £14 million.
The alleged bribe was said to have been paid in the 1990s when Hibbert, an engineer, worked as chief technical director in the works ministry under the previous People's National Party government.
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