TPDCo post yanked from Myrie after uproar

Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) Chairman Ian Dear has declined to say whether directors considered the Petrojam-scandal-scarred past of Lionel Myrie before agreeing to appoint him as interim executive director of the state agency recently.

That decision, however, was overturned Saturday, following the intervention of Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, a day after the news emerged followed by a flood of criticism led by the Opposition People’s National Party.

“The matter is dealt with so I have no comment. ... Once we identified that there was a potential issue, we addressed it and we’re moving forward,” said Dear, a businessman, yesterday.

A statement from Bartlett’s ministry said the appointment was rescinded following a consultation involving Permanent Secretary Jennifer Griffith and TPDCo’s board.

Director of corporate services at the agency, Georgeia Robinson, will now take charge for the next 30 days until the board finalises its recruitment of a permanent head.

Myrie, meanwhile, has returned to his substantive post at TPDCo as director of product development and community tourism.

Three senior officials, including Myrie, were reportedly under consideration to act in the top post left vacant by Stephen Edwards, a civil engineer and former president of G2K, the young professional arm of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.

Myrie emerged the choice as the board was said to be conflicted over the two others and wanted to head off an internal power struggle, sources say.

Edwards, who was acting in the position for months, has now reportedly been tipped for a top position at a government company based in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

Messages and telephone calls to Myrie have gone unanswered.

Senator pleased with decision

Senator Janice Allen, opposition spokesperson on tourism, said she is pleased with the decision to reverse the appointment.

“The minister has seen and heard. He has heard my view, and the view of many Jamaicans, that this would not be tolerated,” she said, arguing that other competent persons are at the agency.

“Whilst he’s still employed to TPDCo, I would not have wanted to see him in the role of a leader of the [entire] organisation,” she said, arguing that Myrie should not have been appointed in the first place.

“Any board that is accountable, any board that is constituted to work on behalf of the people, must be very careful in the decisions they make ... . It cannot be that it was okay,” she said.

Allen has argued that there were still unanswered questions surrounding the Petrojam scandal which broke in 2018.

Myrie is a former director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), Petrojam’s parent company, who faced strong backlash for his role in the controversial multimillion-dollar donations by the oil refinery, which claimed the Cabinet position of Dr Andrew Wheatley, to whom Myrie was a personal assistant

Petrojam had acknowledged that an email Myrie sent to then Petrojam General Manager Floyd Grindley “formed the basis” on which the company granted a $10-million donation requested by the Homestead Citizens for Action Benevolent Society.

The donation was requested for the construction of two classroom blocks at the Homestead Primary School in St Catherine and the money was paid directly to the institution.

A performance audit of Petrojam, which was conducted by the Auditor General’s Department, found that Myrie also forwarded, on behalf of a citizens group identified as the Sydenham Citizens’ Association, an email to Grindley requesting a $9-million donation for a community project.

This donation is the subject of an investigation by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency.

During an appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in May 2019, Myrie acknowledged that, in both cases, he was merely acting as a “courier” and he had merely passed on a request he said came from late councillor Owen Palmer.

Myrie insisted at the time that, when he forwarded the emails to Grindley, he was not acting in his capacity as a PCJ director or as an assistant to Wheatley.

TPDCo is the central agency mandated by government to facilitate the maintenance, development and enhancement of the country’s tourism offerings. It spends millions yearly.

editorial@gleanerjm.com