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St. Ann Municipal Corporation Office of the Contractor General November 2017
Representations Made by the Contractors in Respect of the Manner in which the Contracts were
Awarded
Having regard to the representations which were made to the Contractor General concerning the manner in
which certain contracts were awarded by the St. Ann Municipal Corporation, and specifically the utilization of
the facility of “
group payments
”, the OCG deemed it prudent to ascertain, directly from the contractors, the
processes which were utilized as well as the means through which the contracts were obtained, executed and
implemented. In this regard, the contractors listed in Appendix 2 of this report were summoned to appear before
the Contractor General on September 28, 2015, October 1, 2015, October 16, 2015, October 22, 2016, June 1,
2017 and June 2, 2017. The OCG has represented, hereunder, details of the contracts which were awarded to the
respective contractors as well as the representations made by them:
Mr. Blyden Brown
Mr. Blyden Brown was awarded a total of three (3) contracts during the period 2013 and 2015. The contracts
were entered into between Mr. Brown and the St. Ann Municipal Corporation individually valued at
$285,000.00, $18,000.00 and $80,000.00. The contracts were all signed and dated by Mr. Blyden Brown,
however, the contract which was in the amount of $285,000.00, was not signed by the responsible officer within
the Corporation, indicating whether the works had been satisfactorily completed by Mr. Brown.
In addition, the OCG observed that for the contract which was awarded in the amount of $18,000.00, the St.
Ann Municipal Corporation failed to establish and/or record the quantity of works performed or the rates which
were applied in respect of the payment made.
Mr. Blyden Brown, by way of a Statement which was provided to the OCG and dated June 4, 2015, advised the
OCG of the circumstances under which he was awarded a contract by the St. Ann Municipal Corporation in the
following manner:
“
In the year 2011 (I do not remember the month) I was in
Claremont and Miss Ann Smith (at that time she was the
Secretary of Constituency Office in Claremont) contacted me
from the M.P’s office to do bushing and drain cleaning work on