On borrowed time

Some very senior members of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are now fretful that Friday’s near-midnight resignation of the controversial Robert Montague from the Cabinet, capping a turbulent past six years, will expose cracks in the governing party.

Montague’s departure as minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation followed last Tuesday’s release of an explosive Integrity Commission (IC) report that revealed he knowingly approved gun licences to persons with a criminal history while he was national security minister (2016-2018).

His predecessor from the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), Senator Peter Bunting (2012-2016), was also named in the report.

The IC’s findings reportedly whetted the appetite of Montague’s enemies in the JLP, some of whom have long been pushing Prime Minister Andrew Holness to jettison the St Mary Western member of parliament for his role in previous controversies.

Some have reportedly never forgiven Montague, the JLP chairman, for not declaring support for Holness in a brutal 2013 leadership race.

“It was always coming. Holness has been displeased with him for a long while but he had to be delicate because the man has influence in the party. This was now too much. I just fear what can of worms this will now open. Some things have been simmering for a while and this may just give it legs,” said a Holness administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity, referring to the IC’s report on the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA).

“A lot of people wanted Montague gone from long time. Ain’t no secret. He knew he was on borrowed time.”

A four-line statement from Holness confirming Montague’s resignation did not include a reason or any indication whether the minister was asked to resign, the sixth Holness administration minister since 2016 to be either sacked or reassigned.

It is not clear whether Montague would be recalled to the Cabinet as happened in the case of Floyd Green.

“We know some of the wounds from 2013 nuh heal yet or will never heal but Bobby allowed too much controversy to follow him. The man refuse to run some people who letting down him and the team,” said another JLP official.

As to Montague’s future as JLP chairman, one of the officials said that position is now in doubt as the former minister is now weakened even, as he warned that national politics is “sharply” different from party politics.

“You have to remember that there’s a group in this organisation that wants to cut him out of the leadership altogether and this situation will only make it a little easier. But there’s another group that will fight back. Montague built JLP machinery in the east and that has to be respected. Our access to money, even with new purse strings emerging and the PM setting up new power blocs, is partly tied to him (Montague) based on who is in his corner so it’s not going to be easy,” the party official stated.

Telephone calls to JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang yesterday went unanswered.

Montague has declined interviews but about half-hour before Holness’ confirmation, Montague issued a WhatsApp broadcast message saying he was leaving the executive because he had “personal matters” to deal with and also that he has hired a law firm.

In a country with one of the world’s highest homicide rates, consistently averaging over 40 per 100,000 of the population built on deep-rooted gang, gun and political violence, the matter of political leaders granting firearm licences to persons with a criminal background has touched a raw nerve.

The special investigation by the country’s main anti-corruption agency released in Parliament last Tuesday revealed that Montague and Bunting granted gun licences to persons of questionable character.

Both men issued statements on Thursday, with Bunting, who served as national security minister from 2012-2016, asserting that he acted “in accordance” with recommendations while Montague, who held the portfolio from 2016-2018, said the report was “grossly misrepresentative and incomplete”.

Legislation gives the national security minister, who is in charge of the FLA, the discretionary power to recommend permits, whether entirely of his own volition, or on the recommendation of a review board.

Bunting featured in two cases – one about his granting of a licence to a man whose US records for drug trafficking was expunged and the other involving another man who was never charged for that matter. An assault case against him was dismissed and the judge made no orders in another.

Regarding Montague, the report detailed how the then security minister overturned applications that were either denied or permits revoked for six persons whose criminal past ranged from lottery scamming, drug trafficking to illegal gun possession.

The probe started out under the Office of the Contractor General in 2016 but that body has now been subsumed under the IC.

STARK CASE

The case of a person identified in the report as RM1/Person X1 was stark.

At an interview with the then contractor general, Dirk Harrison, on October 2017, Montague was introduced to email correspondence dated July 30, 2017 that the IC received from a former policeman.

The former cop claimed that he served the police force as a detective corporal between 2007 and 2015 in the St Mary and Area Two police divisions.

He said in early 2014, he arrested and charged RM1/X1 of Mason Hall in St Mary for breaches of the anti-lottery scam law after a police team, including him, raided the man’s house and seized lead sheets, computers and other paraphernalia.

“The matter was disposed of in 2015 due to the fact that I resigned the JCF and did not attend court,” the ex-policeman said, noting that RM1 applied for a gun licence while he was charged and before the courts.

During a background check by an investigator from the FLA, the former cop said he indicated that RM1/X1 was “not a fit and proper person to be granted a firearm licence because he associates himself with persons of questionable character and is deeply involved in the illicit lottery scam”.

The ex-cop said he and RM1/X1 would see each other on a regular basis and talk when they meet at parties in St Mary.

The application was denied on September 29, 2015 but over a year later, on December 16, 2016, Montague overturned that decision and granted the permit to RM1/X1.

The whistle-blower explained that the appeal was made through late attorney-at-law Ernest Smith, which was later acknowledged by Montague.

He claimed that RM1/X1 had a “close relationship” with Montague, and was a “well-known person in and around the Oracabessa area of St Mary, who was one of the main campaign members for Mr Montague’s team during the 2016 election campaign”.

The ex-cop said he was not a supporter of the JLP but he suggested he was providing security services for which he was paid.

He said during that period he was on motorcades with both Montague and RM1/X1, which allowed him “to see how close of a friendship they had and would open my eyes to a lot of things”.

According to the whistle-blower, after the 2016 polls, RM1/X1 told him that Montague would give him a gun licence as soon as he was settled in office as national security minister.

“I have been around [RM1/X1] and overheard conversations with him and Mr Montague where Mr Montague told him that he spoke to Mr Ernest Smith who is [RM1/X1]’s attorney and told him to write to him and he will deal with it,” the ex-cop said.

“I also spoke to Mr Montague, asking him to help me rejoin the JCF, where he told me that he will deal with it,” he said, adding that a letter to Montague regarding the JCF was picked up by the then minister’s bodyguard in Oracabessa.

REPAYMENT

He said the process used to give RM1/X1 his gun licence was not proper.

“Montague knows about the character of [RM1/X1]. Mr Montague is repaying him with the firearms licence for the work he put out to help him win his seat in Western St Mary. This matter needs to be investigated,” he said.

The ex-cop added: “This man is not a suitable person to be in possession of a firearm as I know for a fact that he has illegal firearms. He is claiming to be the don for Mason Hall, he associates himself with criminal elements and has bought firearms for several young men in Oracabessa and Ocho Rios because he is claiming that they are his soldiers.”

Montague admitted knowing RM1 but denied promising that he would give him a gun permit.

“I can’t recall,” Montague said when asked to confirm whether he told RM1/X1 in the presence of the whistle-blower that the lawyer should write to him and he would deal with the case. “Mr Smith indeed wrote to me and it was not the first letter on the file.”

Pressed on whether he specifically spoke with the whistle-blower, Montague said “no because as far as I know, I do not know, as I told you last week [the whistle-blower]”.

That interview was on October 12, 2017. A previous interview took place on October 4, 2017.

At that first meeting, Montague confirmed that he knew RM1/X1 personally since 2015.

He said he was aware of the Unruly Gang in St Mary but did not know of any connection with RM1/X1.

But Montague confirmed seeing intelligence from the National Intelligence Bureau linking RM1/X1 with scammers in Annotto Bay, a major town in St Mary.

Questioned about RM1/X1’s association with his political campaign team, Montague was initially not specific, noting that “a lot of people campaign for me because I did my – I never stopped campaigning after I lost the election in 2011”.

“RM1/X1 to my certain knowledge attended about three or four meetings that I had in Mason Hall and I believe I had one in Rio Nuevo and he came. But RM1/X1 used to be a very strong supporter of the People’s National Party,” he said later.

The then contractor general also queried his response that his campaign machinery leading up to the 2016 general election numbered 11,710 persons and the past association with the PNP.

“How do your powers of recollection cause you to remember him being at about three of these meetings?” he was asked.

Montague replied: “Because I spoke to him. Because I was introduced to him and I was told who he was and he was not the only person being introduced at the time.”

Questioned on the basis for his approvals in February 2018, Montague told the investigators that he made his decisions based on the information he received from the ministry, which included details on the files of the applicants.

Montague also complained that ministerial discretion under the FLA Act was not defined.

But the director of investigations said documents prepared by the FLA, as well as the application files of the persons who appealed, included information on their criminal backgrounds.

In 2018 when news emerged that he issued the permit to a policeman with a criminal trace, Montague said RM1/X1 was a “national security asset” and the then reportage compromised his security.

CIVIL SOCIETY COMMENTS ON RESIGNATION OF ROBERT MONTAGUE

Jeanette Calder, executive director, Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal

MP Robert Montague made the right decision. This is, however, the first of more steps needed on the path of accountability for the decisions he took to legally arm citizens convicted of assault and gun crimes.

We regret that the official statement in the prime minister’s release did not advis, that he has sought and received the commitment of the Financial Investigations Division (FID) and the Major Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) for further investigations or provide any “next steps”. However, in the absence of a ‘gag’ clause on the FID and MOCA, we anticipate that the people of Jamaica who they serve and who are funding these offices will be afforded such assurances from the institutions themselves.

Professor Trevor Munroe, principal director, National Integrity Action

Minister Montague did the right thing in tendering his resignation following the many ‘wrong things’ disclosed in the Integrity Commission’s Special Investigation Report into the FLA.

We hope and expect that there be no consideration for the foreseeable future of his reinstatement to ministerial office or to positions of authority, as has occurred in successive administrations in similar circumstances.

It is absolutely unacceptable, especially in a context where thousands of Jamaican people have been victims of and live in fear of violent gun criminals over many years, that ministerial discretion be used to grant gun licences to individuals convicted of or involved in violent crimes, lottery scamming, illegal possession of firearms, gang membership, etc, as disclosed in the IC report.

Mickel Jackson, executive director, Jamaicans for Justice

The organisation notes the resignation of one former national security minister, Robert Montague, from his current Cabinet post. Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) is calling on the prime minister to demonstrate to the country that the Government is serious about tackling corruption and crime by making comprehensive changes to the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA).

JFJ renews its call for the FLA to be completely removed from executive control, with the agency being a body of Parliament, and board members appointed by the governor general, following consultation with both the leader of Opposition and the prime minister.

editorial@gleanerjm.com

Rise and fall of Robert Montague

• Robert St Aubyn Montague, or ‘Bobby’ Montague, agronomist

• Montague’s father Asquith Nathaniel was a charter member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and his mother, Earline Leila Harris, was the constituency secretary for West St Mary.

• He was introduced to the political scene in 1990 at the age of 25 when he was elected councillor for the Carron Hall Division in the St Mary Municipal Corporation on the JLP ticket.

• 2003 – Elected mayor of Port Maria and chairman of the St Mary Municipal Corporation after leading the JLP to a shock win of the council over the People’s National Party (PNP); credited as strategic political organiser.

• 2007 – Elected member of parliament for Western St Mary; named minister of state with responsibility for local government reform; served as chairman of the Commonwealth Local Government forum.

• 2012 – Elected JLP chairman; re-elected chairman in 2013.

• December 2011 – Lost St Mary Western seat to the PNP’s Jolyan Silvera.

• February 2016 – Won back St Mary Western in the 2016 general election.

• September 2020 – Re-elected member of parliament for St Mary Western.

Montague’s turbulent six years as government minister

• March 7, 2016 – Sworn in as minister of national security.

• January 2017 – Presided over policy to give used cars to the police. A $400-million contract was awarded to O’Brien’s International Car Sales to provide 200 pre-owned vehicles. The company was unable to fulfil the contract. Thirty cars outstanding up to October 2021.

• August 2017 – Board of the Firearm Licensing Authority resigns over allegations that more than 100 gun licences were issued to persons with adverse traces, including ex-convicts.

• March 2018 – Montague was removed as national security minister. Took over as minister of transport and mining.

• 2019 – Government grants controversial mining to Noranda Bauxite Jamaica to mine in a section of the Cockpit Country known as Special Mining Lease (SML) 173.

• 2019 and 2020 – Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) and Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) bought combined $450-million shares in St Lucia-registered firm First Rock Capital Holdings.

• October 2021 – Montague forced to dissolve AAJ and NMIA boards over the controversial purchases.

• October 2021 – Montague removed board of Clarendon Alumina Production following controversy over a series of contracts given to CCA Capital Partners to provide consultancy services.

• January 2022 – Prime Minister Andrew Holness strips Montague of portfolio responsibilities; reassigns him as minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

• March 2022 – Montague resigns from Cabinet following Integrity Commission investigations that he approved gun licences for persons with criminal background.