PNP councillor linked to multimillion-dollar contract awards
Published:Sunday | August 29, 2021 | 12:05 AM
More than a third of about $20 million worth of government contracts issued since 2019 in the Ipswich Division in St Elizabeth under a special fund went to the leadership of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) local machinery, a Gleaner investigation has found.
It gives a peek into the roles politicians play in the distribution of state resources as three of the contractors declined to talk about the expenditure, saying that the councillors should explain money they collected.
It also drags back into focus the porous procurement systems at the local-government level that critics have long argued hamper accountability for the stewardship of taxpayers’ money.
Ipswich is one of 15 political divisions in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)-controlled St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation and falls in the St Elizabeth North Western constituency, whose member of parliament is the JLP’s J.C. Hutchinson.
It is the only one of the three divisions in the constituency represented by the PNP, whose standard-bearer is Mugabe Kilimanjaro (formerly Prince Mugabe Waite), having won it in the last local government polls in 2016.
As councillor, he submits proposals to the municipal corporation for various works to be done as well as recommends contractors. There is no standardised form.
The proposal is reviewed to determine the competence of the contractor, whether the work is necessary and can be done for the amount of money proposed, the St Elizabeth municipality said.
It said that most contracts do not go to competitive tender or require justification for single-source procurement because their value is below the $500,000 threshold.
The country’s municipalities have no requirements mandating the declaration of interest or for even a basic background check of the proposed contractor to include any relationship with the councillor.
It means that the St Elizabeth authorities may not have been aware that among the contractors they have routinely approved for works under the Parochial Revenue Fund (PRF) were seven people from the PNP’s executive leadership in Ipswich and St Elizabeth North Western.
The PRF, which is financed by property tax receipts, is used to fund public cleansing and garbage disposal, street lighting, fire services, minor water supply, parks, and beautification projects.
Three of the seven serve on Kilimanjaro’s divisional executive as well as the PNP’s constituency committee, according to a list obtained by The Gleaner that shows the recommended committees for the 2019-2020 political year. The positions were retained into 2021.
Approximately $20 million was disbursed across 138 payments to more than 30 contractors under the PRF between July 24, 2019, and July 28, 2021.
Of that amount, almost $9 million was collected across 34 payments by the identified PNP functionaries, documents obtained by The Gleaner revealed.
Contracts over the period ranged from $15,000 to $1.5 million. The largest sum went to a construction company in June. The majority were valued at $250,000 or less.
‘PERSONAL BUSINESS’
Petragaye Rodney, who is listed as secretary for the constituency committee and vice-chairman of the division, declined to confirm her positions, saying that she wished “not to be a contributor to your story”.
Funds under her name totalled $2.2 million and came from 10 payments, with the latest being June 4, 2021.
Rodney said issues about the funds were her “personal business” and directed queries to Kilimanjaro because “he’ll be able to answer all your questions”.
A telephone call ended abruptly after she was asked whether the councillor could address questions about monies she collected from the municipal corporation.
The records obtained by The Gleaner do not show any funds disbursed to the councillor who recommended the contractors and projects to the parish authorities.
Christopher Russell, who was confirmed between July and August 2020 as the PNP’s representative for the Newmarket Division, also served as a contractor.
He collected approximately $285,000. The largest payment of $150,000 was made in April. Three others were in March, October, and November of 2020.
“It’s best if you take those questions to the municipal corporation,” he said when told he was contacted for a response.
Another official, Kadian Burey, was listed as treasurer for the constituency committee and secretary for Ipswich. Approximately $450,000 fell under her name, with the later of the two payments made on December 12, 2020.
“I am honestly not interested in anything you have to say to me. So please nuh call back mi phone,” she said before a telephone call on August 20 to confirm her roles also ended abruptly.
The previous day, she confirmed being a contractor but said she was not aware of complaints that some workers did not receive their pay or had been given less than agreed.
Burey also directed additional questions to the councillor, who could not be reached, as telephone calls were not returned, and email and WhatsApp messages went unanswered up to press time.
Five other officials, whose names are being withheld for now, also received around $5 million in contracts.
‘THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE’
PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell said that he needed to get information from the councillor before commenting because he was “not familiar with the issue”.
One party official, to whom The Gleaner has granted anonymity, claimed that he agreed to be a contractor on a debushing and drain-cleaning project, collected the funds but turned over everything to the councillor after clearing a cheque at a bank in Black River. Copies of cheque stubs have also been obtained by The Gleaner.
“I went to the bank and changed it and passed it on the councillor to distribute the money,” the official said, adding that “I just get a call when to pick it up. I don’t know for what reason but that’s how it’s done and that’s how we deal with it.”
The contractor said in one instance, out of more than $200,000 collected, he was paid $10,000 in an envelope. The official noted that although he was listed as the ‘contractor’, he did not perform any related duties.
“He (councillor) will call three, four persons and say, ‘You do that road? You do that road? You do that road?’,” the contractor said, explaining that the persons who choose the workers for the different roads took pictures before and after the works and submitted them to the councillor’s office.
“It’s not me who give out the work. My name put down as the contractor just to collect that money to pay for the persons who are doing the roads,” the official insisted, adding that he was not aware of the amount workers get as the envelopes are usually stapled with each worker’s name on them.
PRACTICE IS ‘ENDEMIC’
The situation is “unfortunate”, argued a senior PNP official, who claimed that the practice is “endemic” in local politics.
“At that level (local government), you will naturally have conflicts of interest, but it has to be managed. I cannot understand why anyone would have so many of their executive members getting contracts,” said the official, who was not authorised to speak on the matter.
Chairman of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation Derrick Sangster said he does not know of any situation where contractors give monies to councillors to pay workers.
“The contractor would have been given a contract. He would have employed the workmen and other amenities such as equipment. He deals with his payment. I do not know of any circumstances where contractors turn monies over to the councillor to complete payment,” Sangster said.
The Black River mayor is supported by his counterparts in Falmouth, Collen Gager; Spanish Town, Norman Scott; and Port Antonio, Paul Thompson, who said they were not aware of such a practice in their municipalities.
“I’ve never seen it happen in my council … never heard about it,” said the councillor of 23 years.
The St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation, meanwhile, said its role is limited and that once the work is verified and funds are paid out to the contractor, they do no follow-ups on how it is distributed to workers.
“Our role is not to find out the relationship between them (councillor and contractors), whether they are brothers, sisters, uncle, aunty, niece, or nephew or friend,” the corporation said. “Our only role is to get the work done.”
At the neighbouring Manchester Municipal Corporation, the Superintendent of Roads and Works, Althea Hall, said that while there is no system to check relationships, councillors still get a warning.
“We do from time-to-time encourage the councillors to be careful in the contractors that they recommend. Even though there might not be policies … it does look a way,” she said of instances where close associations exist.
Declarations of interest are critical even for small-value contracts, argued chief executive officer at the Portland Municipal Corporation, Jennifer Brown-Cunningham.
She said that although the superintendents of works are the final arbiters of the award of contracts, it is more difficult to speak to conflicts of interest, especially when declarations are not required.
“Working in the space for some time, you will establish relationships that you will be able to pick up on some things, but sometimes if it is not said to you, you really wouldn’t know,” she said, noting that a process started some years ago to require councillors nationally to make declarations of interest when recommending contractors.
Brown-Cunningham said the formal requirement is also important to give municipal employees the confidence to make decisions that may be adverse against local political bosses.
“When you are within a certain space and certain things are happening, is not everybody brave enough to stan’ up because yuh mortgage haffi pay. So you need the rules to back you up,” she said.
Bryce Grant, who heads the roads and works department at the St James Municipal Corporation, said a policy mandate is important, but focus must also be placed on the quality of works “even if it is a cousin or the brother or sister of a councillor”.
“The only conflict that might be is if it is suggested and it is constant that this person (councillor/MP) may be getting works over a period of time for the same person and nobody else in the constituency, and the division would be benefiting,” he said.
Although politicians from the two main political parties have acknowledged recommending persons they know for contracts, the issue has grabbed national attention through two major scandals – the one involving Lisa Hanna, the PNP MP for St Ann South Eastern; and Shernet Haughton, the former PNP mayor of Lucea in Hanover.
Last year, the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions ruled out criminal charges against Hanna over a 2017 report from the former Office of the Contractor General (OCG) – now Integrity Commission – which criticised the MP for recommending the award of contracts to 12 people linked to the PNP.
The OCG, in 2014, also found that 22 contracts, worth more than $3.7 million, were awarded to relatives and persons affiliated with the former mayor.
In both instances, the director of public prosecutions reminded the country that nepotism and cronyism charges could not be brought against the elected officials because those offences are not part of Jamaican law.
Beyond speaking out against nepotism and cronyism, lawmakers have not pushed to outlaw the practice.