(Jamaica Observer) The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) says that it is appalled at the Cabinet’s challenge to its powers to access information needed to complete investigations into three major investment projects being pursued by the Government.
The Government has challenged the OCG’s probe into the North-South Link of Highway 2000, the Gordon Cay Container Transshipment Hub, and establishment of an oversight panel to oversee the award of the Government contracts.
The OCG says that until and unless a court of competent jurisdiction overrules the decision made in the case of Lawrence v Ministry of Construction (Works) and the AG (1991), or otherwise restrains it from proceeding with requisitions, failure by the Cabinet or any other person or authority to comply with its requisitions for information “amounts to a flagrant violation of the rule of law and constitutes a criminal offence under section 29 of the Contractor General Act”.
The OCG said that for clarity, it had decided to provide an overview of the positions posited by the Office of the Cabinet over the past seven months for the information of Parliament. The special report was tabled in the Senate on Friday.
In the report, the OCG said that the actions of the Cabinet had also affected its monitoring of the operations of Blue Diamonds Hotels and Resorts Inc and the Liquefied Natural Gas project.
The special report also said that the OCG regards the situation as grave, “which is not only incongruous in nature, but which further questions the intent of the Cabinet of Jamaica and, by extension, the current administration”, in its decision to challenge the statutory requests of the OCG for the provision of certain documents.
