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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
CONTRACTOR General Greg Christie has recommended that the Government take steps to ensure that former banker Aubyn Hill be barred from serving on the board of directors of any public body in the future.
The recommendation is one of several contained in a 148-page report tabled in Parliament yesterday reflecting the results of Christie's probe into Hill's multi-million dollar consultancy contract with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to oversee the divestment of State sugar assets.
The Office of the Contractor General's (OCG's) decision to commence the probe came on the heels of media reports alleging that Hill's company, Corporate Strategies Limited, had been paid $27 million for consultancy services.
The OCG said it had found that Hill was intimately involved in the divestment process from as far back as December 2005 when he was appointed chairman of the Sugar Cane Industry Enterprise Team (SET) which was charged with overseeing the privatisation of the Government-owned sugar assets.
Christie said the arrangement was highly questionable, given the fact that the OCG received conflicting statements from permanent secretary in the Ministry Donovan Stanberry, Hill and Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton as to the nature of Hill's engagement by the ministry.
On the one hand Christie said Stanberry, in a 2009 statement, insisted that the two contracts awarded to Hill between June 2008 and February 2009 during the divestment process were contracts of employment by the ministry.
However, Christie said contrary to Stanberry's assertion of the award of an 'employment contract' to Hill, the OCG found that both contracts, which were signed by the ministry and Hill, were for consultancy services.
"They were not, as the permanent secretary had represented, employment contracts," Christie said.
"The OCG has concluded that, in light of the existence of Mr Hill's consultancy contract, and the obvious conflict of interest situations which would have clearly arisen, the minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, should not have appointed Mr Hill as the chairman of the board of directors of the SCJ Holdings Ltd, nor as a member of the board of directors of the SCJ in 2009 July," he said.
He went on to note that the first contract, which was awarded on August 18, 2008 to Hill, should have been subjected to the GOJ procurement guidelines and was in fact awarded in breach.
"The OCG has found that by virtue of the fact that the ministry had failed to obtain the prior approval of the National Contracts Commission, the contract award process was, therefore, both irregular and improper in nature. Consequently, the award of the contract to Mr Hill was unlawful," Christie said.
In addition, he said the second contract, awarded to Hill in March 2009, should have been subjected to the new Procurement Guidelines, which came into force in December 2008.
Christie also said that the contract which was awarded on March 30, 2009 to Hill, via the Sole Source Contracting Procurement Methodology, was awarded in breach.
But the agriculture ministry, in a statement issued to the media yesterday, said it "completely and unequivocally" repudiated Christie's suggestion that the minister, permanent secretary and Hill had contrived to deliberately deceive him. The ministry, however, said Stanberry had initially made a genuine mistake in designating the contracts "Employment Contracts", an admission later made to Christie by Stanberry but of which no note was taken in the OCG report.
The ministry also dismissed suggestions that Hill's engagement was a conflict of interest, and said owing to the fact that the decision to have Hill head the process was a Cabinet decision, it would have been illogical, having obtained a Cabinet approval to contract Hill, to seek further approval from the other lower levels of approval in the procurement system.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...boards_7964196
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
CONTRACTOR General Greg Christie has recommended that the Government take steps to ensure that former banker Aubyn Hill be barred from serving on the board of directors of any public body in the future.
The recommendation is one of several contained in a 148-page report tabled in Parliament yesterday reflecting the results of Christie's probe into Hill's multi-million dollar consultancy contract with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to oversee the divestment of State sugar assets.
The Office of the Contractor General's (OCG's) decision to commence the probe came on the heels of media reports alleging that Hill's company, Corporate Strategies Limited, had been paid $27 million for consultancy services.
The OCG said it had found that Hill was intimately involved in the divestment process from as far back as December 2005 when he was appointed chairman of the Sugar Cane Industry Enterprise Team (SET) which was charged with overseeing the privatisation of the Government-owned sugar assets.
Christie said the arrangement was highly questionable, given the fact that the OCG received conflicting statements from permanent secretary in the Ministry Donovan Stanberry, Hill and Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton as to the nature of Hill's engagement by the ministry.
On the one hand Christie said Stanberry, in a 2009 statement, insisted that the two contracts awarded to Hill between June 2008 and February 2009 during the divestment process were contracts of employment by the ministry.
However, Christie said contrary to Stanberry's assertion of the award of an 'employment contract' to Hill, the OCG found that both contracts, which were signed by the ministry and Hill, were for consultancy services.
"They were not, as the permanent secretary had represented, employment contracts," Christie said.
"The OCG has concluded that, in light of the existence of Mr Hill's consultancy contract, and the obvious conflict of interest situations which would have clearly arisen, the minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, should not have appointed Mr Hill as the chairman of the board of directors of the SCJ Holdings Ltd, nor as a member of the board of directors of the SCJ in 2009 July," he said.
He went on to note that the first contract, which was awarded on August 18, 2008 to Hill, should have been subjected to the GOJ procurement guidelines and was in fact awarded in breach.
"The OCG has found that by virtue of the fact that the ministry had failed to obtain the prior approval of the National Contracts Commission, the contract award process was, therefore, both irregular and improper in nature. Consequently, the award of the contract to Mr Hill was unlawful," Christie said.
In addition, he said the second contract, awarded to Hill in March 2009, should have been subjected to the new Procurement Guidelines, which came into force in December 2008.
Christie also said that the contract which was awarded on March 30, 2009 to Hill, via the Sole Source Contracting Procurement Methodology, was awarded in breach.
But the agriculture ministry, in a statement issued to the media yesterday, said it "completely and unequivocally" repudiated Christie's suggestion that the minister, permanent secretary and Hill had contrived to deliberately deceive him. The ministry, however, said Stanberry had initially made a genuine mistake in designating the contracts "Employment Contracts", an admission later made to Christie by Stanberry but of which no note was taken in the OCG report.
The ministry also dismissed suggestions that Hill's engagement was a conflict of interest, and said owing to the fact that the decision to have Hill head the process was a Cabinet decision, it would have been illogical, having obtained a Cabinet approval to contract Hill, to seek further approval from the other lower levels of approval in the procurement system.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...boards_7964196
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