Probe payment for PM’s vacation – PNP
The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is calling for an official investigation by the Contractor General, the Auditor General, the Parliamentary Integrity Commission and the Ethics Committee of Parliament into the financial relationship involving Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Mike Henry, the Minister of Transport and Works other Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) officials and building contractor, YP Seaton and Associates.
The call by the PNP comes against the background of what the Opposition said it views as the inappropriate and highly irregular reported payment by YP Seaton and Associates for the plane tickets for the Prime Minister and his son Stephen, who are said to be on a bird shooting vacation in Paraguay in South America.
"The whole affair is even more questionable against the background of information that YP Seaton, a major shareholder in the construction firm, which has reportedly received more than $2 billion in government contracts since 2007, has also accompanied the Prime Minister on the trip," the PNP said in a statement Tuesday afternoon sent by Peter Bunting, General Secretary.
"YP Seaton and Associates is a major subcontractor on the more than J$36 billion (US$400 million) Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme, JDIP, which the Prime Minister only recently conceded does not meet the bar of accountability and transparency. The contractor also recently figured in a deal which has been questioned by the Public Accountability and Appropriations Committee, PAAC, of Parliament. Under that deal, a contract valued at $183 million was awarded by public tender to YP Seaton and Associates for the rehabilitation of roads in Newport West in Kingston, but was later placed under the JDIP programme and the contractor paid a total of $311 million to carry out the work," Mr. Buntimg’s statement continued.
According to the PNP, the construction firm was also the major subcontractor on the Falmouth Pier in Trelawny and the Palisadoes Road in Kingston, none of which was procured on the basis of competitive tender.
"The timing of the Prime Minister’s vacation has also been called into question by the PNP. The vacation began on June 15 the day immediately following the tabling in Parliament of the Report of Manatt/Coke Commission of Enquiry, which concluded that the Prime Minister’s conduct in the nine-month delay of the extradition of alleged drug and gun smuggler, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and the hiring of the firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to lobby the United States Government on the matter, was inappropriate," the statement said.
The Opposition added that is concerned that the Prime Minister appears to move quickly and without remorse from one inappropriate action to another.
The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is calling for an official investigation by the Contractor General, the Auditor General, the Parliamentary Integrity Commission and the Ethics Committee of Parliament into the financial relationship involving Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Mike Henry, the Minister of Transport and Works other Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) officials and building contractor, YP Seaton and Associates.
The call by the PNP comes against the background of what the Opposition said it views as the inappropriate and highly irregular reported payment by YP Seaton and Associates for the plane tickets for the Prime Minister and his son Stephen, who are said to be on a bird shooting vacation in Paraguay in South America.
"The whole affair is even more questionable against the background of information that YP Seaton, a major shareholder in the construction firm, which has reportedly received more than $2 billion in government contracts since 2007, has also accompanied the Prime Minister on the trip," the PNP said in a statement Tuesday afternoon sent by Peter Bunting, General Secretary.
"YP Seaton and Associates is a major subcontractor on the more than J$36 billion (US$400 million) Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme, JDIP, which the Prime Minister only recently conceded does not meet the bar of accountability and transparency. The contractor also recently figured in a deal which has been questioned by the Public Accountability and Appropriations Committee, PAAC, of Parliament. Under that deal, a contract valued at $183 million was awarded by public tender to YP Seaton and Associates for the rehabilitation of roads in Newport West in Kingston, but was later placed under the JDIP programme and the contractor paid a total of $311 million to carry out the work," Mr. Buntimg’s statement continued.
According to the PNP, the construction firm was also the major subcontractor on the Falmouth Pier in Trelawny and the Palisadoes Road in Kingston, none of which was procured on the basis of competitive tender.
"The timing of the Prime Minister’s vacation has also been called into question by the PNP. The vacation began on June 15 the day immediately following the tabling in Parliament of the Report of Manatt/Coke Commission of Enquiry, which concluded that the Prime Minister’s conduct in the nine-month delay of the extradition of alleged drug and gun smuggler, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and the hiring of the firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to lobby the United States Government on the matter, was inappropriate," the statement said.
The Opposition added that is concerned that the Prime Minister appears to move quickly and without remorse from one inappropriate action to another.
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