(Jamaica Gleaner) A mole in the Ministry of Finance provided the United States Embassy in Kingston insider information on almost every move made by then Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies.
But this public servant did not appear to be motivated by a political bias, as he continued to provide the embassy with insider information after the Government changed and Audley Shaw assumed control of the country’s purse strings.
Diplomatic cables from the Kingston Embassy between 2005 and 2009 include several classified information from the mole, whose name is being withheld by The Sunday Gleaner.
In one cable dated March 2005, the mole told the Embassy that Davies handling of the “comfort letters” which had sparked a firestorm in Parliament raised questions about his managerial and leadership qualities.
The comfort letters had been issued by the finance ministry to financial institutions as an unofficial government guarantee on behalf of agencies not subject to Parliamentary review.
As the firestorm raged in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, the mole told the Embassy that it was unfortunate that civil servants in the Finance Ministry had to explain something they knew nothing about.
According to the mole, the grilling from the PAC had put so much pressure on one finance ministry employee that he became stressed out.
“This was complicated by the scramble to get additional information for the next sitting of the PAC,” the cable quoted the mole.
“(The mole) also reiterated the difficulty these off-book expenditures had on planning,” said the cable.
IMF too ‘bullish’
With that controversy hardly settled the International Monetary Fund issued a June Staff Report on Jamaica and expressed broad agreement with the economic policies being implemented by Davies.
