Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

Golding

Joining Government's sparring match with Contractor General Greg Christie, Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday criticised him for his most recent public outcry, but stressed that the controversial contracts-award watchdog still has his support.

"Yes, yes. I do still have confidence in him," Golding told The Gleaner at Gordon House yes-terday, less than half an hour after going on the offensive in the chamber of Parliament.

Making a statement to the House of Representatives, Golding stopped short of accusing Christie of over-stepping his boundaries.

"It is not the function of the contractor general to set the rules," he said in addressing the House.

Yesterday, Christie gave a terse response to the prime minister's comments.

The contractor general said his office had "carefully reviewed the prime minister's statement and would make no further public comment on the matter".

Christie has, since last week, been embroiled in a war of words with Finance Minister Audley Shaw, following Cabinet's decision in August to exempt five public sector entities from government procurement procedures.

Cabinet had taken the decision to exempt Air Jamaica, Petrojam, the Port Authority of Jamaica, the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jamaica Vacations from normal procurement requirements in respect of certain transactions.

However, Christie, whose job it is to police the system of award of contracts, opposed the move. He said in a statement on Monday that Government should rethink its decision and "withdraw the measure in the interest of preserving fairness, transparency, probity, competition, accountability and value for money in the country's procurement system".

Transparency International's most recent report - which takes into account people's views on financial corruption by agencies of the state - had Jamaica slipping from position 84 to 96 out of 180 countries on the perceived corruption index.

The ratings are based on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating the highest levels of perceived corruption and 10, the lowest level. Jamaica received a score of 3.1.

Meanwhile, in defending the decision of Cabinet to allow the exemption, Golding said the procurement activities to be exempted would still be subject to monitoring and investigation by the contractor general.

Emergency situations

The prime minister stressed that the exemptions being given to the five entities would allow them to respond to emergency situations and to be more efficient in their operations.

The proposed exemption would allow Air Jamaica to procure products, such as on-board aircraft pillows and blankets, without following the government procurement procedures.

Dr Omar Davies, the opposition spokesman on finance, supported the Government's decision to exempt the companies but noted he had one reservation.

"We understand the thrust and we understand the motivation for identifying certain entities, but these guidelines open the doors for abuse," Davies said.

One proposed new guideline would allow the head of the Port Authority to approve sole-sourcing or direct contracting of goods for up to $5 million.

Davies argued that guidelines such as these were "too broad", but Golding assured him that the rules governing sole-sourcing and direct contracting had not changed.

The prime minister also stressed that companies that supply pillows for airlines were normally overseas companies that are not registered by the National Contracts Commission. He said it would cost Air Jamaica much more if it were to acquire the good through local entities.

In continuing to address comments made by the contractor general, Golding came to the defence of Shaw.

Christie on Monday had claimed Shaw presented "a fallacious argument that is merely being used as a façade to conceal one of the real reasons that appears to be driving the issue: public officials who seem to be unwilling to be subjected to any form of accountability or probity in the way that they spend the taxpayers' money".

Golding said: "It is an unworthy and unwarranted attack on the minister."

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com