Lucea mayor rejects claims he pocketed contract monies - Samuels says allegations are part of smear campaign
Published:Tuesday | October 6, 2020 | 6:22 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels is dismissing claims of financial impropriety as two videos make the rounds, accusing him of nepotism and of siphoning off monies from the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) into his own pockets.
In one of the videos, Samuels was accused of giving contracts totalling in excess of $7 million over four years to a family member.
At a press conference yesterday, the mayor rejected the allegation.
“In terms of video one that I have seen, ... it has been stated that this gentleman is my stepson. That is false,” said Samuels, who said the claim was “causing serious problems within my relationship”.
While he acknowledged that he knows the contractor and that he had only received contracts from the HMC valued at $5.6 million under his leadership, Samuels said the process was above board.
He said that there is allowance for persons who are not registered contractors to be given contracts for up to $2 million without breaching procurement guidelines.
“You do not need a contractor certificate. You do not need to go to school to be contracted to clean drains and bush road banks, so these allegations that you are seeing out there do not hold any water,” said Samuels, who heads the People’s National Party (PNP) majority in the HMC.
“No one can ever state that they have returned funds to me, which is within the video itself,” he added, pouring scorn on allegations that monies from the contracts ended up in his pocket.
Samuels intimated that the videos were the work of a disgruntled PNP member, who he said he knows and could pursue legal action against, although not revealing the identity of the speaker.
The mayor said he believes the videos to be part of a smear campaign to hurt his chances of re-election as councillor of the Cauldwell division in the upcoming local government polls constitutionally due next month.
He questioned why no fuss was being made over other payments made to individuals in other Hanover divisions.
“What about the other divisions?” he asked. “You have divisions that have given out work for $5 .9 million, and that is one person over the period. There are other individuals who have received contracts valuing between $3.2 and $5.2 million in other divisions,and no mention made of them in the videos.”
He continued: “We are one of the most audited corporations so I do not want persons to be sending out things into the public, fixing and faking stories, that we are doing anything illegal here,” said Samuels, adding, “it really hurts”.