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Stabroek News

LETTER OF THE DAY - Odd that Kern is the only official charged
published: Sunday | March 2, 2008

The Editor, Sir:

I find it quite odd that Mr Kern Spencer, the former state minister for energy, is the only elected government official from the former PNP-led administration that is being charged by the police in connection with the Cuban light bulb scandal. As stipulated in the handbook on public sector procurement procedures located on the government of Jamaica website www.ocg.gov.jm, Mr Spencer could not have acted on his own. On page 11 of this handbook it clearly states the following:

1. Contracts less than J$4m requires agency or ministry approval.

2. Contracts more than or equal to J$4m but less than J$15 million requires ministerial approval on the recommendation of the NCC.

3. Contracts equal to J$15 million and above require Cabinet approval based on recommendation of the NCC and the minister.

This document is public knowledge and can be accessed and read by anyone who has Internet access. The total amount of money reportedly associated with the project is somewhere in the region of J$267 million. Simple math will tell us that at minimum the Cabinet must have had to approve this. I know that agencies sometimes create multiple contracts to stay within the threshold of their approvals however, in this case they would have had to create at least 67 different contracts. So my question to the authorities investigating this case is did you find 67 contracts?

I firmly believe that if Mr Spencer and his two associates are found guilty they should be punished. However if there are other individuals who clearly benefited from these transactions, then these individuals should also be punished.

This is not a situation where one individual should take the fall for another. I say to Mr Spencer this is not about being labelled an informer. This is about taxpayer's money that's being embezzled and misappropriated as suggested by the charges levelled by the police; and without passing judgment on the persons charged. It's about the nurse and the teacher who couldn't get their wages increased, it's about the pensioner living on little or nothing, it's about insufficient funds to furnish our schools and fix our roads, its about hospitals not having basic resources to run at their premium.

We are watching this case closely and the local authorities had better follow procedure with this one.

I am, etc.,

MARY FISHER

nat.rus@gmail.com

Via Go-Jamaica

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