Tweet
ROPER'S PERSPECTIVE by Garnett Roper
<span style="color: #FF0000">Remove the Plank From Your Eye</span>
It is becoming increasingly apparent that many of those who speak most often and most passionately about corruption lack a sincere interest in transparency, probity and accountability. Rather, it is emerging that references to corruption by some of those persons are simply attempts to manipulate the public political sensibilities of Jamaicans.
In particular, references to corruption are seeking to serve a party political agenda and are neither thoroughgoing nor consistently applied across the board. A lot of cherry picking is going on. We are interested in corruption, but only in what may be construed as some people’s corruption.
A great cacophony of sounds emerged over the recent Trafigura Beheer affair. In that matter the Dutch oil trading company, which trades Nigerian oil on Jamaica’s behalf, passed $31 million through the bank account of a minister of government who was at the time, also the general secretary of the ruling PNP. The outcome was the resignation of the minister from the Cabinet and from his post as party general secretary.
In all the circumstances, the resignation of the minister and party general secretary was the correct outcome because even though all that happened was that a ruse had been created to accept a political donation from Trafigura Beheer, the ostensible scheme created the appearance of a conflict of interest. In other words, in the contract offered to Trafigura Beheer by the minister, on which the invoice for the sum of J$31 million was based, it referred to a subject for which the Cabinet minister had direct ministerial responsibility.
At the same time there was no indication that the minister benefited personally or materially from the donation from Trafigura Beheer. Nevertheless the resignation of the minister was the correct thing in the circumstances, but it was rather for the clumsiness or ineptitude than because he acted corruptly per se.
Exposing undergarment
What is important is that ‘chatacracy’ sections of the media, the political Opposition and of course, the office of the Contractor General descended upon the government and the PNP like a gang of alligators in a small pond at the sight of blood. Some even boasted that the scandal was big enough to bring down the government, in fact the Opposition leader called for the resignation of the government. When people are insincere, time will catch them up and expose their undergarment.
In the course of time, the Minister of Local Government & Environment, the Hon. Dean Peart, made public his intention to hold discussions with the Mayor of Lucea about the appearance of a conflict of interest in his stewardship of the affairs of the Hanover Parish Council. The Sunday Herald newspaper, which had been working on the story for some time, provided the public with the broad outlines and some details of what were taking place in Hanover with the Fiesta hotel construction project there.
The Sunday Herald indicated that the Hanover Parish Council had given a steep discount on building fees to Fiesta and that the mayor who led the charge to grant the discount had a contract in his personal capacity to do business with the said construction project to which the discount had been given. The Sunday Herald further alleged, what as yet been unsubstantiated, that councillors in Hanover receive part of the proceeds of the discount to be used in the parish council division that they represent.
The Daily Gleaner provided a balanced analysis of the issues involved through an editorial on Tuesday last. Remarkably, the views expressed in that Gleaner editorial concurred with my judgment expressed on Power 106 that there were similarities with the Fiesta affair and the Trafigura affair.
Similarities
What are those similarities and why do I say that Fiesta pushes the envelope further than Trafigura. First of all, both Fiesta and Trafigura Beheer are foreign companies that are doing business with Jamaica.
Secondly, what was an allegation when the Opposition (JLP) first made the revelations about Trafigura is more palpably the case with Fiesta. That is, when the Leader of the Opposition first broke the story, I heard him saying on the radio during his press conference that was called in the precincts of Gordon House, that the $31 million, which was transferred to the account of CCOC and then to the account of the PNP, were either funds diverted from the proceeds of oil trading on Jamaica’s behalf or a kickback.
Those allegations have remained unsubstantiated and unproven. The Trafigura funds have since been confirmed as a straight political donation clumsily handled but a donation nonetheless.
However, in the case of Fiesta a sum of $56 million ought to have been paid to the parish council. $56 million was the sum that should have been paid over, according to the regulation governing building fees for all parish councils island wide. Only $42 million was paid over. The remaining $14 million that ought to have come to the parish council was ostensibly given as a discount to Fiesta. This discount was given on the basis of what must at best be misinformation on the part of the mayor who as it has turned out, led the charge to give the discount to Fiesta.
The discount was granted on the basis that without the discount, Fiesta was not likely to make good its intention to build the hotel in Lucea and might not remain in Hanover. This of course, is not a credible statement by the mayor — certainly he could not hold that view sincerely.
To begin with, Fiesta is building a 2000-room hotel on land they have bought in Hanover. They do not own a similar parcel of land anywhere else in Jamaica. More importantly, the rate applied in Lucea for building fees is the same rate in every parish in Jamaica; if anything, it could be even higher elsewhere. The discount of 25 per cent or $14 million on building fees rate is something that none of the mayor’s competitors could match. Whatever was the precisely the case, we simply do not know and that is why there is a conflict of interest.
Self interest
Thirdly, for all his sins, the former minister and general secretary and still PNP senator Colin Campbell was seeking funds for his party in the Trafigura affair. In that therefore, however ill-advised or inept, he showed a degree of nobility. He was seeking however clumsily and ineptly to serve a cause greater than himself and his own narrow self-interest.
In the Fiesta affair, it appears Mayor Crooks had no other cause but his own material, personal and business interest. He stood to benefit personally and materially from the actions he led the parish council to take. He failed to disclose his interest.
To make matters worse, the mayor sent a proposal to the Ministry of Local Government seeking to distribute to the JLP councillors and himself for the PD an average of $4 million each and a somewhat smaller sum to the PNP councillors. He was further seeking to allow himself as mayor another sum over which he would have exclusive discretion. So he would allocate to himself had he been allowed to do so, a sum of greater than $10 million of the building fees eventually collected.
We can only be thankful that in the scheme of things there is still a Ministry of Local Government to inhibit what have largely become banana republics at the parish councils.
No frenzy
What is remarkable about the Fiesta is that it has not managed to catch the eye and stimulate the frenzy of the usual harbingers of corruption.
The Office of Contractor General has been busy as it is bogged down, not only by its self-imposed restriction not to trouble itself with the parish councils, but with toting up a string of 18 contracts stretched over nine years of Petcom amounting to the grand sum of $4 million. The CG can be forgiven for not having the time to notice the PC in Hanover, or the St. Mary or KSAC. One has to sympathise with the CG, there are just too many transactions of $250,000 and above in Central Government to find the resources to go after conflict of interest and nepotism in the parish councils.
The spin put on it buy master spin doctor Senator Dwight Nelson, who is the Opposition spokesman on Information, suggests that the discount to Fiesta was entirely in order since parish councils waive building fees for building of government schools. He felt that a discount to a sizeable commercial contract was entirely appropriate.
Jamaican people have a saying that the JLP would do well to heed: ‘If you live in a glass house don’t throw stones.’ Or as the Bible puts it, first remove the plank from your own eye then you can see to remove the speck of dust from your brother’s eye.
https://<a href="http://www.sunheral...orial2.htm</a>