HEART's Gabbidon bows out over conflict-of-interest pressure
Published:Tuesday | December 21, 2021 | 1:17 AM
Jovan Johnson/Senior Staff Reporter
Edward Gabbidon has resigned as board chairman of the HEART/NSTA Trust amid concerns about his position and the relationship his company, SynCon Technologies, has with the troubled skills training agency.
It comes months into a Sunday Gleaner investigation that brought the issue to light and just days after HEART's portfolio boss, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, downplayed the conflict-of-interest concerns frowned upon by the agency's own policies and several government laws and regulations.
Holness said last Tuesday that he was confident in the businessman, who is also the chief executive officer of SynCon, a major tech supplier to HEART.
Holness thanked Gabbidon for his service and will name a new board chairman shortly, said a statement issued Monday night from the Office of the Prime Minister. It said Gabbidon's resignation took effect on December 17.
The prime minister has joined his transport and mining minister, Robert Montague, and Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw, in being forced to deal with board changes in recent months as concerns about the governance of public bodies mount.
Gabbidon said, among his reasons, that he did not want to become a distraction to the work of the board.
"In deciding to give of my time for public service, it was never to seek personal benefit, public praise or political attention," he said.
Monday's announcement came the same day the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal, National Integrity Action, and the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association demanded that Holness rethink Gabbidon's status.
The last 16 months have been an unstable period for HEART, starting with a September 2020 auditor general report that raised questions about the value for money spent on several skills training programmes.
Gabbidon was first appointed in April 2017 and took charge as the entity was undergoing $300-million merger in which three institutions were absorbed.
The merger has been lauded publicly, but internally, fissures run deep over the restructuring, management, procurement, human resource practices and, ultimately, questions about the quality and rate of certification – the key deliverable expected of the agency funded by a tax on employers.
The entity has been without a permanent managing director since March, raising questions about succession planning.
Further reporting by The Gleaner revealed internal worries among the procurement staff about the recommendation for the award of a contract in 2019 to the chairman's company.
In April, this newspaper reported on a chain of emails in which chair of HEART's procurement committee, Marsha Whyte-Fletcher, spoke of a “clear conflict of interest” in the recommendation for the award of a contract to the chairman's company and sought advice from the agency's legal officer, Desrine Pearson.
Pearson said that while the observation about a potential conflict of interest was “prudent and reasonable” given the committee's responsibility, she could not make a determination as to whether there was actual conflict of interest.
Pearson acknowledged receiving from the procurement committee a statement of affiliation form submitted by Gabbidon but not a declaration of interest the committee mentioned in its request for advice.
But Gabbidon is arguing that Pearson's comments have been used to suggest that he did not make the required declarations.
He said he did disclose his interests and had no involvement in the procurements in question because the contracts were valued below the level that would require board approval.
"I fully understand, respect, and indeed support the need for political debates on these matters. However, oftentimes the truth is a casualty and facts treated as incidental to promote a narrative," he said, seemingly referring to the Opposition's questioning of Holness on the issue last Tuesday in the House of Representatives.
Regarding the 2019 contract that triggered questions among staff, Gabbidon said the procurement process was later aborted and that he recused himself from examination of the matter.
Between October 2006, when it started providing services to HEART, and March this year, SynCon won 196 contracts totalling approximately $303 million, according to documents the agency supplied in October through an Access to Information request.
Gabbidon first became chairman of HEART on April 3, 2017, and information HEART submitted to a parliamentary committee in July indicates that since his tenure began, 39 contracts were awarded to SynCon valued at $134.6 million.
That means that 44 per cent of the total monetary value of all contracts awarded to SynCon since 2006 coincided with the period Gabbidon chaired the HEART board.
In the five years leading up to Gabbidon's appointment, SynCon was awarded 81 contracts valued at approximately $102 million.
Over the summer, HEART was also ordered by the finance ministry to discontinue the illegal imposition of a tax on travelling officers, resulting in the chaotic implementation of a new system.
In further questionable actions, Holness revealed earlier this month that despite having a hotel, HEART spent $5.7 million to host a retreat for its board and senior executives at the Moon Palace Jamaica hotel in St Ann.
HEART has also admitted to paying out millions in salary increases to some of its senior employees before getting board and finance ministry approvals.
The prime minister has announced that HEART is undergoing a strategic review because the agency has not been meeting some of its policy objectives.