Holness faltered, says Knight
Published:Sunday | December 4, 2011 | 12:00 AM
As the People's National Party (PNP) continues to take aim at the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) over the handling of the US$400-million Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), two former senior government ministers from either side of the political divide have weighed in on the issue.
They are former national security ministers K.D. Knight and Derrick Smith, both of whom escaped the stigma of scandals while in government.
- Holness faltered, says Knight
Knight, who had first called on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to fire the then Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry when the scandal surfaced, welcomed the news that the minister is out of the way, but maintained that Holness faltered on the job.
Financed by a loan from the government of China, the project was implemented by the National Works Agency, under the guidance of the Ministry of Transport and Works.
"If it is that Henry resigned, it ought to have coincided with that of Patrick Wong because the buck stops with him. Based on what has been coming out, he (Henry) was either aware or ought to have been aware of the misdeeds associated with the project," said Knight.
The former member of parliament, now senator, added: "If it is that he was given an ultimatum to resign or to be fired, the prime minister slept on the decision for too long ... . In circumstances such as these, the action must be decisive and swift."
- Shameless PNP hypocrisy, says Smith
Smith, who is still a member of parliament and will be contesting the upcoming election for the North West St Andrew seat that he has held since 1989, has characterised as "shameless hypocrisy", the PNP's position on JDIP.
"The party, under P.J. Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller's leadership, seemed to have forgotten how it treated Ben Clare in the furniture scandal - with a pat on the back, Dr Karl Blythe in the Operation Pride scandal, Colin Campbell in the Trafigura scandal, and Kern Spencer in the light-bulb scandal.
"Nothing happened to Clare, who admitted to Parliament that he signed critical documents, and, to this day, Spencer, who is before the court on corruption charges, is barefaced enough to be attending Parliament, and the PNP encourages him to be there when the Opposition is in need of support on a vote," contended Smith.
He charged that Simpson Miller, as the minister of local government in 2005, emerged from the scandal arising from the financial irregularities unscathed.
"Mr Patterson did not ask her to resign," argued Smith. "None of the ministers at the senior and junior levels, who were involved in the furniture scandal, was asked to resign in 1990/1991."
Smith charged that Campbell's resignation in 2006 as general secretary came after prolonged meetings of the executive level of the party. "There is no indication that Simpson Miller demanded Campbell's resignation in order to send a signal," he said.
Party post remains
Making reference to questions swirling about whether Henry's position as chairman of the JLP hangs in the balance, Smith said, while Patterson had asked Blythe for his resignation in 2002 before the general election, the embattled politician was allowed to continue as vice-president of the PNP until 2006.
The Operation Pride/National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) scandal highlighted allegations of corruption and mismanagement at the NHDC, where there was a $35-million overpayment on an Operation Pride housing project, among other things, resulting in cost overruns of more than $5 billion on many of the 100 Operation Pride projects.