Kingston; September 5, 2012 – The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has received a report of an alleged failed attempt at the execution of one of its staff-members by a Government contractor.

The report, which was conveyed to the OCG this morning, alleges that the OCG staff-member, while he was at a certain location, was identified by the Government contractor. It is further alleged that, unknown to the OCG staff-member, the contractor immediately left the area and returned with gunmen with the intention of killing the OCG staff-member. However, by the time the contractor and the gunmen returned, the staff-member had left the location.

The person who conveyed the information to the OCG stated that he wanted to warn the OCG staff-member of the impending threat to his life.

The OCG staff member is one of the primary OCG officials who have been assigned the responsibility of interviewing contractors whose applications for re-registration as Government Works Contractors have been withdrawn from the National Contracts Commission (NCC) Works Contractor Application Process, because of fraudulent representations that the OCG has uncovered in the applications.

Section 15 of the NCC’s Works Contractor Application Form provides as follows:

“If the information provided by the applicant on which evaluation and (contract) awards were based is found to be erroneous, then the contractor shall not be registered, or if already registered, the registration will be revoked”. (OCG Emphasis).

The OCG, which provides administrative and technical support services to the NCC, has been battling, since April 2009, to root out corruption from the NCC’s Works Contractor Registration Process.

Some of  the  irregularities  which the OCG has  identified in the NCC’s prescribed process are indicative of  the magnitude of  fraud and corruption which has now permeated Government contracting in Jamaica. They include:

(1) Forged contractor re-registration applications, supporting documentation and certifications;

(2) Falsified information regarding the human, physical, financial and technical resources of contractors;

(3) Falsified information about construction projects which contractors allege that they have executed; and

(4) Irregular and forged Voluntary Declarations which falsely attest to the veracity of contractor application forms.

The OCG has also received allegations that Government works contractor applicants are paying as much as $250,000 to young University of Technology (UTECH) and University of the West Indies (UWI) engineering graduates, to have them falsely attest to the OCG that they are working with the contractor applicant when, in fact, they are not.

The report of the alleged threat of execution against the OCG staff-member was personally reported this morning, by Contractor General, Greg Christie, to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Glenmore Hinds. Arrangements have since been made between the Police High Command, and the OCG, for formal statements to be taken today in the matter, and for the allegation of the thwarted execution to be investigated.

The OCG staff-member, at whom the alleged execution attempt was directed, is also the same person against whom threats of violence were overheard being made during the inaugural meeting, on July 28, 2012, of the recently organized Jamaica Association of Consultants and Contractors (JAC).

The JAC, whose Chairman is Mr. Percival LaTouche, in several of its Media Releases, had accused the OCG of delays in the NCC’s Government contractor re-registration process but, recently, after meeting with the Contractor General, recanted its claims and has since directed them to the NCC.

The OCG must, however, again, state, for the record, that where works contractors submit re-registration applications to the NCC which contain misleading, false or fraudulent representations, the NCC’s prescribed and published criteria are clear that the contractors cannot be re-registered.

To state, therefore, that there is a delay in the re-registration of such contractors, or that the OCG is responsible for same, and/or that the OCG has deprived the affected contractors of their economic livelihoods, is not only misleading, but amounts to a deliberate and calculated distortion of the facts, and a clear attempt to discredit the OCG and the work that it is mandated by law to do in enforcing the prescribed rules of the NCC and the laws of the land.

“It should now be crystal clear to all concerned that these reckless statements, about the OCG, are endangering the lives of the hard-working members of the OCG’s  staff who are doing nothing more than the jobs that they have taken a solemn oath to do. These reckless statements must stop before someone’s life is snuffed out”, said Contractor General, Greg Christie.