THE EDITOR, Sir:
YOUR LETTER of the Day, on December 7 brought to mind the saying: "When truth is on your side one is a majority".
I am proud to say, that the principles which I live by are truth and full disclosure. Mr. Rousseau starts his letter equating the criminal act of stealing with his moral judgement on political contributions. Stealing, as Mr. Rousseau well knows is against the law. Supporting the fund-raising activities of Members of Parliament is not. Support to Members of Parliament by companies is practiced and accepted not only in Jamaica but worldwide.
Mr. Rousseau also knows that Caymanas Track Ltd., (CTL) has never received one dollar of public funds. Public funds as defined by law are government receipts, and have nothing to do with CTL's income-generating operations.
CTL is a private company. The government became a reluctant owner of CTL through a compulsory liquidation process because its predecessor could not pay its tax bill. (It did not receive a tax waiver for the required investment).
The CTL board without the benefit of $1 of investment by the government was able through its management and policies, to turn the company into a profitable and growing entity, which has contributed over a $1 billion in taxes to the government. It should be noted that the mandate of the CTL board on appointment was to divest the company to private hands for the sum of $40 million. The CTL Board was able to turn a bankrupt company into a highly profitable one; to the extent that the government has seen fit to divest itself of such companies as the Jamaica Telephone Company, the Jamaica Public Service, banks, insurance companies, hotels and other assets while still retaining the ownership of the race track. That speaks volumes to the quality of performance of the former board.
On three occasions in the press there were allegations of a missing $300 million. After the recent press conference the original allegations have disappeared. We never sought to hide the fact that we purchased dinner tickets. The original allegation was that we financed the election campaign of a certain Member of Parliament.
There has been a comparison made between contributions to Members of Parliament and those made to the Bustamante Children's Hospital. We made no such comparison. My reference to the Bustamante Children's Hospital was that the figure of $811,000 publicised as political contributions erroneously included donations to Bustamante Children's Hospital, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and several others.
Mr. Rousseau's question as to who got what and why is easily answered. We responded to solicitations and contributed in proportion to the requests received, most of whom were from ardent supporters of the racing industry.
As an example, the former Deputy Prime Minister has been a great supporter of the racing industry and has been duly honoured by both CTL and the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association (JRTA). In his capacity as Minister of Finance, he was helpful in CTL's request for a change in legislation which guaranteed the payment of purse money at 8 per cent of sales. Mr. Mullings' enlightened approach resulted in policy decisions which helped the racing industry and CTL supported some of his causes by purchasing fund-raising tickets. The support to Mr. Lee Clarke, (JLP Councillor) the president of the JRTA, and one of the greatest critics of the CTL Board, validates that our focus was the welfare of the racing industry and not politics. I do owe an apology to he Honourable Seymour Mullings and other board members when I made the comment, in an inappropriate context, that he appointed us to the Board.
Now that we understand what public funds really are let us discuss Pat's Principle that the CTL board had no right to purchase these tickets. CTL is a company, which makes its own money, which does not have $1 invested by the government and does not spend public funds. If Pat's Principle is correct, what is the position of every publicly listed company, whose shares are bought and sold daily by government trust funds such as the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ), National Development Bank (NDB) and FINSAC? These companies are also part-owned by government and, depending on the method of acquiring that ownership, the companies themselves may have benefitted from investment of taxpayers' money. According to Pat's Principle we should be investigating the quantum and the beneficiaries of political donations by each of these companies.
Mr. Rousseau in his letter referred to Ministers compromising their integrity by selling fund-raising tickets to a company within their portfolio. It is my view that his experience as the chairman of the Cement Company demonstrated that he is well versed on this topic. I am glad he has provided me with the opportunity to ask these questions of the former chairman of the Cement Company, a government-owned company which incurred significant losses to the taxpayers and shareholders:-
1. Myers, Fletcher & Gordon, a firm in which Mr. Rousseau is a Senior Partner received $51 million for legal services rendered in a rights issue which under his leadership never took place. Can he say why no other legal firm was asked to provide a quotation for these services?
2. Was it not Henry Fullerton who was chairman of the Cement Company, Finance Committee who placed $180 million (of taxpayers funds, according to Pat's Principle) in his own bank, whose solvency was in question at the time. And where is the $180 million now? And where was chairman Rousseau at the time of the placement of the funds?
3. Cement Company a government company in 1997 chaired by Pat Rousseau had its subsidiary Jamaica Gypsum and Quarries pay $75 million to a third party to buy out its interest in a disputed lease of government lands. By January 31, 1998 a decision was taken to suspend operations of that company and make the staff redundant. So, the Jamaica Gypsum and Quarries Limited, a subsidiary of the Cement Company, "donated" $75 million (of taxpayers funds, according to Pat's Principle) for a disputed lease and then promptly went out of business within the year.
(Source: Caribbean Cement Company Annual Report 1997) I reiterate that I see nothing wrong with a company such as CTL., which generates its own funds and which has never received a $1 of public funds purchasing tickets in support of Members of Parliament provided it subscribes to the policy of public disclosure.
I am, etc.,
RICHARD A. LAKE
20 Hope Road
Kingston 10
