TWO PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) officials yesterday defended the appointment of two board members of the new Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Markets Company Limited.
Councillor Angella Brown-Burke, of the Norman Gardens Division, said the two members, businesswoman Maureen Webber and Robert Stephenson, who works in the Commercial Services Unit at the Ministry of Local Government and Community Develop-ment, are not political activists as charged by Tivoli Gardens Councillor Desmond McKenzie on Tuesday.
In fact, she said Ms. Webber and Mr. Stephenson are merely PNP supporters. She also confirmed Mr. McKenzie's claim that a consultative committee that is overseeing the relocation of downtown Kingston vendors, had decided not to have political activists on the board of the market company. But she added that it was never decided that persons with political leanings would not be named on the board.
Regarding Ms. Webber, whose company Mr. McKenzie alleged were given contracts that didn't go through the correct KSAC channel, Mrs. Brown-Burke countered that there was nothing improper about how the contract was awarded. "There was no variation in the awarding of the contract to her," she said. "The contract would have been approved by the Town Clerk's and the City Treasurer's office."
According to her, when the contract was awarded to Development Options Limited (DOL) to conduct a feasibility study on renovating KSAC car parks, the Small Contracts Committee (SCC), and not the Commercial Services Committee, was dormant. She explained the contracts committee was later merged with the Finance Committee.
Mrs. Brown-Burke added that when the Council passed the resolution to renovate the KSAC car parks, it was left to the KSAC's administrative staff to execute the decision. She added that the expertise to conduct feasibility study was lacking within the KSAC so job was out-sourced to Development Option.
On Tuesday, KSAC councillors voted to have the board members of the KSAC Markets Company Limited named. The votes, which went along party lines, saw businessman Gassan Azan being chosen as chairman and Town Clerk Errol Greene the company secretary. Mr. Azan was the sole nominee from the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.
The other members are Dunstan Whittingam, general secretary of the Jamaica Vendors, Higglers and Markets Association, who is representing higglers in downtown Kingston. With him were Ms. Webber representing the non-downtown business district, and Mr. Stephenson who is representing the Ministry of Local Government.
For his part, Mr. Greene yesterday confirmed Mrs. Brown-Burke's assertion that his office awarded the contract to Development Option. "There's nothing illegal about the contract given to Ms. Webber," he told The Gleaner.
Meanwhile, regarding Ms. Webber's role, if any, in the party, Paul Burke, chairman of the PNP's Region Three, said yesterday that she had declined in April this year to contest the North East St. Andrew seat in the next election against the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) incumbent Delroy Chuck. Mr. Burke said her refusal came after the PNP asked her to run for the
constituency.
He, said, however that Ms. Webber is doing community work in the constituency. "We are looking for a candidate now. We would have her tomorrow but she's not interested," he said.
As for Mr. Stephenson, who Mr. McKenzie said was a former administrative manager at PNP headquarters in Kingston, Mrs. Brown-Burke said she was not aware he was a PNP activist. "He's not a political activist. I'm one. Wherever I go I talk about the PNP," she said. "I've not seen him at any of these forums where activists are gathered."
