The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), has written to Contractor General, Greg Christie, asking him to investigate all contracts negotiated and signed by former Minister of Information and Development, Colin Campbell, during his six months in Cabinet and separately, two contracts held by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).

Audley Shaw, the Opposition Spokesman on Finance, in the letter dated yesterday, said the request was being made because of the circumstances surrounding Campbell's resignation from the Cabinet and as People's National Party (PNP) General Secretary, after he misled party colleagues over the $31 million 'gift' from Dutch oil trading company, Trafigura Beheer.

Need for investigations

Trafigura is still trading the allocation of oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on behalf of the PCJ, while the Contractor General is carrying out an investigation into the contract between the company and PCJ.

"I want to be assured, and the people also, that Mr. Campbell has not done anything that might put the Government and the people in a compromising situation," Mr. Shaw told The Gleaner. He said that tourism contracts, including the joint venture with the United States-based Tavistock Group for the Harmony Cove development, should also be investigated.

The two oil deals cited in the letter are a lifting contract with Ecuador state-oil company PetroEcuador and with Greek oil bunkering company Aegean Marine Petroleum to bunker oil in and around Jamaican harbours. However, a PCJ official denied Mr. Shaw's claim that Trafigura was involved in the Ecuador deal which ended in January.

A third party is currently suing Aegean in Greece for US$10 million (J$660 million) in commission, which it claims is owed from the deal with PCJ.

"That was a serious matter because for a Greek national (the third party) to be suing for US$10 million, that gives a sense of the gravity of the contractual arrangement," Shaw said.