ROBINSON

The Jamaica Labour Party has renewed a call for more power to be given to the Office of the Contractor General.

Shadow spokesperson for local government, Shahine Robinson, made the call Tuesday during a Gleaner Editors' Forum, at the newspaper company's North Street, central Kingston offices.

Mrs. Robinson said the Contractor General needed to be given the power to take action against public bodies and people who wilfully flout existing contract procurement guidelines.

She said the Contractor General needed to be allowed to take punitive action against these bodies and have them brought before the courts if necessary.

"Parliament should really examine what is there and the Contractor General be given something in law ... there is nothing legally binding to force persons to adhere to these guidelines and they continue to flout them without any regard for the law," Mrs. Robinson said.

She continued: "If the fraud squad needs to be called in and persons actively arrested then so may it be."

Move speedily

She said there was such a prosecutor in the United States and that the Jamaican government should move speedily to mirror that system to prevent any further disregard for the law and encourage accountability in the public sector.

Billions of dollars have been improperly spent over the last two years owing to a lack of adherence to contract procurement guidelines. Among some of the best known cases have been the Sandals Whitehouse debacle in 2005 and the National Solid Waste Manage-ment Authority scandal in the same year which together cost the country over $4 billion.

A bill setting out the amendments to the Contractor General Act was first introduced by Opposition Leader Bruce Golding and tabled in Parliament in 2005. The bill has, however, still not advanced through the legislative process.