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Small contracts, big money Points to $88b awarded last year

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

JUST under 12,000 government contracts valued at more than $88 billion were last year awarded to contractors,most of whom were private business entities and whose certified beneficial owners were either unknown or notreadily identifiable, says Contractor General Greg Christie.

Christie drew attention to the information as he pressed his call for an anti-corruption measure that would bringtransparency to the Government's contracts award system by revealing the identity of persons who receive contracts.

CHRISTIE... wants identity of contract awardees publicised

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The recommendation is one of several made by Christie in his report on his probe into the oil lifting contracts betweenthe Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica and Dutch firm Trafigura Beheer.

The measure, he suggested, should be part of stringent and appropriate campaign financing laws to force thedisclosure of the identity of political campaign donors and financiers.

"The proposed laws should also stipulate strict procedures regarding the receipt of campaign financing funds fromany person and/or entity with whom the Government of Jamaica has had a contractual relationship," Christie said inhis 111-page report.

Pointing to a recommendation he made in February this year, Christie reiterated that once this is done, the Office of the Contractor General and other State anti-corruption agencies will have the ability to cross-check these namesagainst an electronic database of persons who are the recipients of government contracts.

According to Christie, the contracts which were awarded last year numbered more than 11,800 -- each exceeding$275,000 in individual value and totalling in excess of $88 billion in aggregated value.

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Christie opened his probe into the Trafigura scandal on October 9, 2006 after it emerged that the then governingPeople's National Party received $31 million from Trafigura which, at the time, had a contract with Jamaica to lift oilon the international market.

Trafigura said the money was part of a commercial agreement, while the PNP maintained that it was a donation tothe party.

The affair resulted in then information minister Colin Campbell resigning from the Cabinet. He also quit as generalsecretary of the PNP. The party later said the money was returned to Trafigura on orders from PNP president andthen prime minister Portia Simpson Miller.

In his report, Christie accused Campbell of failing to provide "detailed and particularised answers to the specificwritten requisitions and questions... put to him" and recommended that the appropriate legal action, as deemed fit bythe director of public prosecutions, be pursued against Campbell for obstructing the probe.

The contractor general also said he was unable to determine the purpose of the money transferred from Trafigura toan account operated by Campbell, and as such reiterated his call for the contracts award safeguard.

Said Christie: "By implementing this very important and ground-breaking anti-corruption measure, we will finally knowthe true identity of the persons, public officials, parliamentarians and politicians, and related parties, inclusive of their

friends, relatives and associates, who have been receiving government contracts."