The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has concluded its Special Investigation into allegations of impropriety and/or irregularity in the circumstances surrounding the award of a contract, by the Accountant General’s Department (AGD), to a named contractor, for the supply and installation of a telephone system at the AGD’s offices.

The OCG’s Investigation follows a Preliminary Enquiry into the matter which was initiated following upon the OCG’s’ receipt, on February 27, 2009, of an anonymous call, which implicated the AGD’s management in allegations of ‘the doctoring of tender documents’ to suit a specific contractor.

The OCG’s Investigation was also prompted by two (2) further sets of allegations which were received from separate but highly placed and concerned individuals – one of which was a senior AGD official – who have requested to remain anonymous. The first of these subsequent allegations was made via a telephone call to the OCG on March 9, 2010 and the second, from the AGD official, by way of letter that was dated September 10, 2010.

The AGD official, in his/her letter to the OCG, stated that “it is with deep regret that I bring to your attention the Accountant General Department’s outright refusal to follow GOJ guidelines and exercise of due care, prudence and transparency…”.

The AGD official, who was also interviewed under oath by the OCG, alleged several instances of irregularity which he/she had observed during the procurement process of the referenced telephone system by the AGD.

In keeping with the requirements of the Contractor General Act, copies of the OCG’s Report of Investigation into the matter were today despatched by the Contractor General to 10 State Authorities.

Pursuant to Section 20 (1) of the Act, copies of the referenced Report were conveyed this morning to Dr. the Hon. Peter Phillips, the Minister of Finance and Planning, Ms. Millicent Hughes, the Accountant General and Dr. Wesley Hughes, the Financial Secretary.

Section 20 (1) of the Act provides as follows:

“After conducting an investigation under this Act, a Contractor General shall, in writing, inform the principal officer of the public body concerned and the Minister having portfolio responsibility therefor of the result of that investigation and make such recommendations as he considers necessary in respect of the matter which was investigated”.

In compliance with the obligations that are imposed upon him by Section 21 of the Contractor General Act, the Contractor General has also despatched copies of the Investigation Report to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Auditor General, the Financial Secretary and the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

Section 21 of the Contractor General Act provides as follows:

“If a Contractor General finds, during the course of his investigations or on the conclusion thereof that there is evidence of a breach of duty or misconduct or criminal offence on the part of an officer or member of a Public Body, he shall refer the matter to the person or persons competent to take such disciplinary or other proceeding as may be appropriate against that officer or member and in all such cases shall lay a special report before Parliament”.

The Contractor General, pursuant to the requirements of Section 21 of the Act, has also formally sent copies of the Report to the Hon. Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. President of the Senate, and the Clerk to the Houses.

Section 28 (3) of the Act requires the Speaker and the President to have the Report tabled in both Houses of Parliament ‘as soon as possible’. As is customary, the Clerk to the Houses has been provided with a compact disc which bears a full electronic copy of the OCG’s Special Report of Investigation.

In the interest of public transparency, and acting in pursuance of the special powers that are reserved to a Contractor General by Section 28 (4) of the Contractor General Act, the OCG’s 194 page Special Report of Investigation into the matter will be published on the OCG’s website at www.ocg.gov.jm, but only after the Report has been formally laid in both Houses of Parliament.

The OCG wishes to caution that where Reports of its Special Investigations find their way into the Media prior to the tabling of the said Reports in the Houses of Parliament, or before the formal posting of same on the OCG’s official website, care should be taken to disassociate any such publication from the OCG.

Note:  The office of the Contractor-General Jamaica

Greg Christie was appointed Jamaica’s 4th Contractor General in 2005 and has since transformed the Office of the Contractor General into what is now widely regarded as one of Jamaica’s most effective, efficient and respected State agencies, and its leading anti-corruption institution.

Prior to his appointment as the Contractor General, he worked for 13 years as a senior management executive with one of the world’s then leading integrated aluminum companies, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation.

Throughout his entire career with Kasier, Mr. Christie headed the company’s Jamaica corporate office at a time when Kaiser was the country’s single largest foreign private investor and tax-payer. His last position with Kaiser was as its Florida based Assistant General Counsel and Global Commodities Business Unit Vice-President for Government Affairs.

Before joining Kaiser, Mr. Christie successfully developed his own start-up credit reporting company in Jamaica and worked extensively in academia as a University of the West Indies (UWI) law programme director and lecturer – an appointment which he assumed when he was only age 24, making him the UWI Faculty of Law’s then youngest law director.

He has lectured for 10 years on the 3 main regional campuses of the UWI in the disciplines of criminal law, corporate law, public international law, insurance law, aviation law, law of the sea, and the law and legal systems of the Commonwealth Caribbean. He has also served for 3 years, at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad, as a tutor in insurance, banking, credit and securities law.

Mr. Christie is also a former Caribbean based commercial and international law attorney and consultant. He has consulted with a wide range of private and public sector organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the US-AID, and has worked on professional assignments in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia.

Mr. Christie is the holder of the LL.M. Master of Laws Degree in corporate, insurance and international law from the University of London, the LL.B. (Hons.) Degree from the UWI, and the Certificate in Legal Education (CLE) from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad.

He is also a United States certified ISO 9002 International Quality Systems Lead Auditor and Change Management specialist. Mr. Christie has completed several business executive development programmes and has attended the Haas Business School, University of California at Berkeley and the Darden Business School, University of Virginia. He is a Government of Jamaica national law scholar and a UWI postgraduate law scholar