Creary didn’t interview Grindley, admits Integrity Commission

The Integrity Commission has corrected one of its damning reports on corruption at Petrojam to reflect that Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor Richard Creary did not interview Floyd Grindley for the post of general manager at the refinery.

In two reports released last week, the commission referenced the panel in questioning whether the strategic placement of certain individuals in key positions at Petrojam served as “corruption-enabling mechanisms”.

The director of investigation said Creary was not only strategically placed on Petrojam’s board, but later interviewed Grindley in 2016.

However, following the release of the commission’s reports on June 30, Creary has publicly insisted that he was not part of the panel and has demanded a retraction.

On Tuesday, the commission tabled the correction in the House of Representatives, making it clear that Creary, the mayor of Port Maria in St Mary, was not on the panel that selected Grindley.

It also pointed to a note elsewhere in one of the reports which dealt with Petrojam donations, where it said that Creary was unable to attend the interview.

Other persons who interviewed Grindley included former board chairman Perceval Bahado-Singh; Ike Johnson, a former executive at Scotia Investment Limited; and Yolande Ramharrack, who, at the time, was a director of Petrojam’s parent company, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).

The commission has accused Grindley, Bahado-Singh, and Ramharrack of various acts of corruption and irregularity.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s update was almost simultaneous with former Energy Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley’s filing of an application in the Supreme Court for leave to get a judicial review of adverse findings against him in the report.

The energy ministry has oversight for Petrojam.

Creary resigned as a Petrojam board member in 2018, but remains a director of the PCJ.