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Ellington, Llewelyn scold Christie
OCG's release of KSAC info hurts probe
BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, June 19, 2011
THE disappearance of a witness identified in the Office of the Contractor General’s (OCG’s) report of alleged fraud at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) is being blamed on the OCG’s release of the information to the public before the police were able to complete their investigation.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn and Police Commissioner Owen Ellington have both upbraided Contractor General Greg Christie for compromising the probe and have described the OCG’s news release on the matter as “premature and sensational publicity”.
“I do not know if there is any real prospect of the matter being able to progress to eventually a viable prosecution, and I say this because, when the police got the file it was in the evening after there had been a 24-hour news cycle,” Llewellyn told the Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s head offices in Kingston on Friday.
In a June 7 letter to Christie, Police Commissioner Ellington said “my officers are convinced that the disappearance of the witness and the failure of both our offices to locate said witness for over one week, and our consequential inability to progress this very important investigation, have been caused by the premature and sensational publicity given to this matter in the media, well before critical evidence was secured”.
As such, the police chief, while promising to pursue the matter relentlessly, urged Christie in future to communicate with the constabulary and give them time to complete the early and crucial stages of the investigations before releasing reports on such matters to the media.
In a three-page response to the police commissioner Christie said the first of two correspondence to the police was hand-delivered less than three hours after the media release and not 72 hours as stated by Ellington.
On May 30, the OCG issued a media release informing that it had uncovered a major contract fraud involving a female contractor who admitted to merely acting as a ‘front’ for three parish councillors and a staff member of the KSAC’s Roads and Works Division.
According to the release, the woman co-operated fully with the OCG and disclosed the extent of the alleged scam.
The OCG said the woman identified the three councillors and the staff member under the pain of criminal prosecution.
Last Thursday, the DPP said the matter was not brought to her attention from the OCG’s office but via a copy of the police commissioner’s letter to the OCG.
In the letter, the commissioner pointed to concerns about security of the witness and evidence, obstruction of the process of investigation by interested parties, the disappearance of potential witnesses and those implicated, and the blockage of access by counsel to certain persons, which can arise with the premature publicity of the matter.
It stated further that the police commenced investigations immediately upon receiving the contractor general’s correspondence but have failed in all efforts to locate the witness.
“Addresses given have been visited repeatedly... and the witness has not been found,” the commissioner said.
Ellington also pointed to the similar difficulty an officer from the OCG was experiencing in locating the witness.
On Thursday, DPP Llewellyn said when information is released to the media prematurely it undermines the other stakeholders and partners in the process of getting the matter to court.
“When he (Christie) refers matters and he is facilitated by the media in saying these are criminal referrals, I say with the greatest of respect the learned Contractor General does not have available to him in his office or on his staff, as far as I am aware, any lawyers with the prosecutorial skill sets and this is why like many other entities it would be safer — and I have said it to him before — refer the matters quietly and then we look at them objectively,” she said.
Noting that this is not the television shows Law and Order and CSI, Llewellyn said when such allegations are made the witness’s security and protection must be of concern in a country where intimidation is a major issue.
According to Llewellyn, she has since responded to the police commissioner to say she has found great merit in the concerns he raised in respect of the “premature and sensational publicity” given by Christie’s office “well before the critical evidence is secured by the police investigators”.
“When you have this done it provides a road map for alleged offenders or target of an investigation to cover their tracks or cause potential evidence upon which the police could base a reasonable suspicion to disappear or dissipate,” she said.
She added further that “it could unwittingly cause the injury to a potential witness on whose statement damning allegations are founded or it could put her under threat or cause her to disappear”.
All citizens, whether accused of administrative or criminal malfeasance, the DPP said, are entitled to due process and natural justice and the sensational publication of unproved allegations can offend their rights in real and damaging terms.
Additionally, she said all citizens are entitled to their good name unless the presumption of innocence has been rebutted after having been found guilty by a duly appointed judge or resident magistrate, operating within the context of the criminal statutes giving them the jurisdiction to decide issues of guilt and innocence.
Llewellyn said she has pledged to offer the OCG the continued co-operation of the office of the DPP.
Meanwhile, she said the OCG’s referrals to her office do not make up a half a per cent of the total work and files that pass through the office of the DPP.
The OCG investigations have included the Kern Spencer case which is now before the court; The Jamaica Urban Transit Company case which the DPP ruled that no one was criminally liable; the Gotel matter which was referred to the police, the London Heathrow and the Joseph Hibbert/Mabey & Johnson matter which have also been referred to the police, as well as the Caymanas Track matter that she said is still outstanding.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1PjNp61KZ
OCG's release of KSAC info hurts probe
BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, June 19, 2011
THE disappearance of a witness identified in the Office of the Contractor General’s (OCG’s) report of alleged fraud at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) is being blamed on the OCG’s release of the information to the public before the police were able to complete their investigation.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn and Police Commissioner Owen Ellington have both upbraided Contractor General Greg Christie for compromising the probe and have described the OCG’s news release on the matter as “premature and sensational publicity”.
“I do not know if there is any real prospect of the matter being able to progress to eventually a viable prosecution, and I say this because, when the police got the file it was in the evening after there had been a 24-hour news cycle,” Llewellyn told the Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s head offices in Kingston on Friday.
In a June 7 letter to Christie, Police Commissioner Ellington said “my officers are convinced that the disappearance of the witness and the failure of both our offices to locate said witness for over one week, and our consequential inability to progress this very important investigation, have been caused by the premature and sensational publicity given to this matter in the media, well before critical evidence was secured”.
As such, the police chief, while promising to pursue the matter relentlessly, urged Christie in future to communicate with the constabulary and give them time to complete the early and crucial stages of the investigations before releasing reports on such matters to the media.
In a three-page response to the police commissioner Christie said the first of two correspondence to the police was hand-delivered less than three hours after the media release and not 72 hours as stated by Ellington.
On May 30, the OCG issued a media release informing that it had uncovered a major contract fraud involving a female contractor who admitted to merely acting as a ‘front’ for three parish councillors and a staff member of the KSAC’s Roads and Works Division.
According to the release, the woman co-operated fully with the OCG and disclosed the extent of the alleged scam.
The OCG said the woman identified the three councillors and the staff member under the pain of criminal prosecution.
Last Thursday, the DPP said the matter was not brought to her attention from the OCG’s office but via a copy of the police commissioner’s letter to the OCG.
In the letter, the commissioner pointed to concerns about security of the witness and evidence, obstruction of the process of investigation by interested parties, the disappearance of potential witnesses and those implicated, and the blockage of access by counsel to certain persons, which can arise with the premature publicity of the matter.
It stated further that the police commenced investigations immediately upon receiving the contractor general’s correspondence but have failed in all efforts to locate the witness.
“Addresses given have been visited repeatedly... and the witness has not been found,” the commissioner said.
Ellington also pointed to the similar difficulty an officer from the OCG was experiencing in locating the witness.
On Thursday, DPP Llewellyn said when information is released to the media prematurely it undermines the other stakeholders and partners in the process of getting the matter to court.
“When he (Christie) refers matters and he is facilitated by the media in saying these are criminal referrals, I say with the greatest of respect the learned Contractor General does not have available to him in his office or on his staff, as far as I am aware, any lawyers with the prosecutorial skill sets and this is why like many other entities it would be safer — and I have said it to him before — refer the matters quietly and then we look at them objectively,” she said.
Noting that this is not the television shows Law and Order and CSI, Llewellyn said when such allegations are made the witness’s security and protection must be of concern in a country where intimidation is a major issue.
According to Llewellyn, she has since responded to the police commissioner to say she has found great merit in the concerns he raised in respect of the “premature and sensational publicity” given by Christie’s office “well before the critical evidence is secured by the police investigators”.
“When you have this done it provides a road map for alleged offenders or target of an investigation to cover their tracks or cause potential evidence upon which the police could base a reasonable suspicion to disappear or dissipate,” she said.
She added further that “it could unwittingly cause the injury to a potential witness on whose statement damning allegations are founded or it could put her under threat or cause her to disappear”.
All citizens, whether accused of administrative or criminal malfeasance, the DPP said, are entitled to due process and natural justice and the sensational publication of unproved allegations can offend their rights in real and damaging terms.
Additionally, she said all citizens are entitled to their good name unless the presumption of innocence has been rebutted after having been found guilty by a duly appointed judge or resident magistrate, operating within the context of the criminal statutes giving them the jurisdiction to decide issues of guilt and innocence.
Llewellyn said she has pledged to offer the OCG the continued co-operation of the office of the DPP.
Meanwhile, she said the OCG’s referrals to her office do not make up a half a per cent of the total work and files that pass through the office of the DPP.
The OCG investigations have included the Kern Spencer case which is now before the court; The Jamaica Urban Transit Company case which the DPP ruled that no one was criminally liable; the Gotel matter which was referred to the police, the London Heathrow and the Joseph Hibbert/Mabey & Johnson matter which have also been referred to the police, as well as the Caymanas Track matter that she said is still outstanding.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1PjNp61KZ
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