( L - R ) Christie and Shaw

The Office of the Contractor General said it was looking into a request from Opposition spokesman on finance, Audley Shaw, to investigate a number of contracts issued by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), as well as all those negotiated and signed by former Information Minister, Colin Campbell.

In a letter to Mr. Shaw, dated October 25, Contractor General Greg Christie said he had assigned the matter to Percival Griffiths, his office's director of licences and permits.

"You should feel free to telephone Mr. Griffiths or myself at any time should you deem it necessary to do so," he said.

In Mr. Shaw's letter, dated October 23, and received by the Contractor General two days later, he requested that the Office of the Contractor General conduct investigations into an "Ecuadorian oil deal between PCJ and Petroecuador", a "contract between PCJ and the Greek Bunkering Company, Aegean Bunkering (Jam) Limited", and "all contracts negotiated and signed by Mr. Campbell over the past six months, in his capacity as Minister of Information and Development".

Mr. Campbell resigned from his ministerial post in the wake of the controversy surrounding a $31 million donation to the governing People's National Party (PNP) by Dutch oil trading company, Trafigura Beheer.

Mr. Campbell, the PNP's general secretary at the time, was instrumental in receiving the funds from the company, which was at the time in the process of renewing a contract to trade Nigerian oil products on behalf of Jamaica.

Personally committed

Mr. Christie said, in his letter, that he was personally committed to "ensuring that all legitimate requests which are lodged with the Office of the Contractor General are reviewed on the basis of their individual merits and in an impartial, fair and objective manner".

He also said a decision to commence and pursue an investigation into any specific matter will be guided not only by these considerations and by the provisions of the Contractor General Act, but also by the availability of the requisite assets and resources.

"Once a decision is taken to proceed, we will do so with as much expedition and diligence as our assets, resources and the prevailing circumstances will permit," the Contractor General added.

The letter was copied to Dr. Carlton Davis, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Development; Dr. Jean Dixon, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce; Patricia Sinclair-McCalla, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, and to Mr. Griffiths.