JLP rejects chairman chosen for Sandals Whitehouse audit
November 15, 2005
THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party says it will not support the appointment of Donald Mullings, as chairman of the six-member forensic audit team to probe expenditure at the Sandals Whitehouse property in Westmoreland.
"The JLP views this appointment as a very negative one and in the light of this cannot support this appointment," said Karl Samuda, the party's general secretary.
Samuda charged that Mullings' company, M&M Limited, has received close to $2 billion in government contracts, including approximately $500 million in contracts from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), the government's development arm chaired by Dr Vin Lawrence, who is principally connected with the Sandals Whitehouse project.
"How can he be impartial in those circumstances?" asked Samuda, the JLP's spokesman on foreign affairs and foreign trade.
He said that criteria for an impartial study must include consultations with the Opposition on the appointment of the team; not appointing anyone considered "genetically connected" to be on the team; and that no beneficiary of large government contracts be included.
He said that none of these were observed by the prime minister in selecting the team.
"The JLP could not support the chairmanship of someone who is so deeply involved in public contracts. We take very strong objections to that," Samuda said.
"This reflects the (prime minister's) disregard for transparency. Notwithstanding that the report will be presented to the Public Accounts Committee (of parliament), we believe that the original report should be from totally unconnected persons," said Samuda.
According to the JLP spokesman, as at September 21, M&M Limited had received nearly $500 million in government contracts. He said that the total number of contracts awarded to the company through the National Contracts Commission totalled nearly $2 billion.
Mullings, a civil engineer, managing director of M&M and president of the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica, was named by Prime Minister P J Patterson to chair the committee, which will carry out a thorough forensic audit of the Sandals Whitehouse project from inception to completion....
Author: Observer Reporter
Source: Jamaica Observer
