THE JUDICIAL Review Court failed in its efforts yesterday to have the dispute between Moore's Air Express Service Ltd. and the Postmaster General settled by the Disputes Resolution Foundation (DRF).
There is a dispute as to whether the applications for tender for mail and workers transportation services were submitted after the deadline for tender.
Moore's Air Express Service is contending that its representatives went to the Central Sorting Office, Kingston at least six minutes before 3 p.m. on February third to put some 69 applications for tender in the box provided at the Central Sorting Office, South Camp Road, Kingston. It claimed that its representatives were barred from putting the applications in the box. Some of the 69 applications belonged to other contractors.
The Postal Department is claiming that Moore's representatives arrived after the 3 p.m. deadline for tender and at that time the box was sealed.
RESOLVED
Mr. Justice Lloyd Hibbert, in putting off the case until June 16, explained that the issue, as to the time the tenders were taken in, ought to be resolved by the DRF. He said that once the issue as to the time was resolved, the next issue ought to be simple.
He said he had suggested the DRF, as there was an issue of two to three minutes in dispute, but the respondent (the Postmaster General, Dr. Blossom O'Meally-Nelson) was not amenable to the suggestion and so the matter would have to go to trial.
Mr. Charles Moore, who owns the company and is also president of the Jamaica Mail Co-operative Society (JMCS), told The Gleaner yesterday that "from experience it was for security reasons that his representatives went with the tenders close to the deadline".
The motion was up for hearing on Monday but had to be put off until yesterday because the court file with the original documents could not be located. The file was found and taken to court yesterday. The judge explained to the parties yesterday that if he started the case it would go beyond a week.
MALICE AND ANIMOSITY
Moore's Air Express Service is seeking an order prohibiting the Postmaster General from considering tenders, without including its tenders and those of the members of the JMCS. The company is contending that its representative were barred from putting in the applications into the box because of a long history of malice and animosity directed against the JMECS and its president Charles Moore. It is seeking a declaration that the Postmaster General's decision taken on February 3 to exclude 69 tenders was wrong in law and in breach of her statutory jurisdiction.
The company has accused the Postmaster General of bias and prejudice and is asking the court to find that the Postmaster General's actions are unfair, arbitrary and against the spirit and intent of the Post Office Act.
The Postmaster General who is being represented by the Attorney-General's Department, is contending that the allegations are not true. Affidavits have been filed disclosing that the invitation to tender was advertised and it was disclosed in the advertisement that applications to tender closed at 3 p.m. on February 3, this year.
The company has obtained a stay of execution from the Supreme Court which prevents the Postmaster General from reviewing the applications for tender until the Judicial Review court has ruled on the matter.
A suit is pending in the Supreme Court in which the Moore's Air Express Services has sued the postal services department to recover $34 million with interest owing for the period May 1, 200 to June 2001. The company has been a contractor with the department since 1955.
