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St. Ann Municipal Corporation Office of the Contractor General November 2017
satisfactorily completed when no verification is conducted, is tantamount to dishonesty and serves
to cheat the revenue and brings into disrepute contract implementation process.
14.
In relation to the contract which was awarded to Mr. Oswald Jarrett, on May 16, 2014, in the
amount of $50,000.00, and where the OCG’s findings indicate that a cheque in the amount of
$50,000.00 was made payable to Mr. Jarrett prior to the date on which the contract was signed as
well as the contract’s stated commencement and completion dates, amounts to gross
mismanagement of public funds and runs counter to the provision of the FAA Act. It is of interest
to highlight that Mr. Jarrett advised the OCG that he had no knowledge of any such contract and
that the signature which appears on the back of the cheque was not affixed by him.
15. The level of management and supervision which was brought to bear upon the implementation of
the contracts and which forms the scope of the OCG’s Investigation, exhibits a disgraceful
display, on the part of the St. Ann Municipal Corporation. The effect of which has resulted in a
breach of the public’s trust and calls into question the manner in which entrusted public funds
have been managed by the Corporation.
16. The practice of group contracts or payments which, in effect, is the grouping of small payments
into a sum less than $500,000.00 is a suspicious informal practice which has been facilitated by
both the Office of the Member of Parliament, South East, St. Ann and the St. Ann Municipal
Corporation. The OCG is still unclear of the origin of this practice, given that both the Member of
Parliament, Ms. Lisa Hanna and the former Secretary Manager, Mr. Alfred Graham have
distanced themselves from orchestrating the practice. The OCG is of the considered opinion that
the referenced practice is a corruption enabling practice and facility, which, if left unchecked, will
have the result of rampant corruption, whether real or perceived. The susceptibility of the practice
to misappropriation and corruption is plausible, on the premises that, in the case of South East, St.
Ann (a) the “collectors” are predominantly “trusted” political party operatives, and (b) there is no
system of record to determine who the true beneficiaries of the contracts are, or which contractor
is liable for the performance of the contract.