By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
AS THE probe into allegations of impropriety concerning the Bogue lands in St. James heats up, the Local Government Ministry and its lawyers are drafting the terms of reference for an independent enquiry into the issue.
Once this is completed, Portia Simpson Miller, Minister of Local Government, will be taking the matter to Cabinet.
Responding to questions from The Gleaner yesterday, the minister said no deadline had been set by her ministry for commencement of the investigations into the Bogue controversy. But she promised to have the matter dealt with expeditiously.
"We have sent our terms of reference to the Attorney-General... ensuring that I'm following the law and getting legal advice throughout," she said.
There have been allegations that the last administration of the St. James Parish Council, which was then under the control of the governing People's National Party, had leased lands at Bogue to some parish councillors and their families.
BREWING CONTROVERSY
The controversy surrounding the Bogue property came to a head prior to the June 19 Local Government elections, when the then Council announced that it was regularising the land, on a lease-to-sell arrangement. The Jamaica Labour Party, charging that the PNP-dominated Council was partisan in its measures to normalise the land tenure, condemned the plan.
Mrs. Simpson Miller, who has promised that the public would soon be informed when the enquiry will take place, was speaking in an interview with The Gleaner yesterday, following a signing ceremony for rehabilitation work on nine roads in St. James. The contract, which was signed at the Parish Council building, is worth $37.3 million.
Mayor Noel Donaldson said the Parish Council was awaiting a directive from the office of the Attorney-General to get the green light to formally begin its own investigation of the land issue.
