Commentary

We have no reason to doubt that the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) adheres to the Government's procurement guidelines, as it has been so busily protesting.

With regard to those arrangements for which it may have had to draw cheques for security services to Christopher Coke's security company, the UDC suggests, it is just that it became saddled with government projects which other agencies had bungled.

These explanations, however, do not, in our view, undermine calls, led by Professor Trevor Munroe of the National Integrity Action Forum for a suspension of all public-sector contracts with firms to which Coke is connected.

But more fundamentally, the current focus on Coke, and the vast sums his enterprises have sucked from the public purse, make a powerful case for an overhaul of the procurement rules as well as the system for policing public corruption, as has been advocated by the Contractor General, Greg Christie.

Christopher Coke, we would remind readers, is an alleged drug and gun smuggler, whose supporters barricaded the west Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens and engaged the security forces in gun battles to prevent his capture and extradition to the United States. Until recent events, Mr Coke was close to the ruling party, its officials and the Government they formed.

Indeed, state agencies, directly or otherwise, doled out contracts to Mr Coke's ostensibly legitimate enterprises, covering sectors such as entertainment, construction and security. When deals were being cut, few of the bureaucrats involved could claim to be ignorant of Christopher Coke's reputation or of the whispers about many of his associates. If they were, it would border somewhere between naivety, a failure to perform due diligence and a dereliction of duty.

Now that Prime Minister Bruce Golding has withdrawn the Government's apparent protective cloak from Christopher Coke, it is appropriate that all his contracts be halted, and preferably withdrawn, even at the risk of legal challenges. It would be a far more legitimate matter on which to expend public resources than the Government's spurious nine-month resistance of America's request for Coke's extradition.

Beyond the immediate issue

But as we suggested, the review of the procurement regime goes beyond the immediate issue of Christopher Coke, but to a deeper problem of public corruption, which the vast majority of Jamaicans believe is endemic in their country. Over the past quarter of a century or so, we have used the Government's procurement handbook and the National Contracts Commission (NCC) in a bid to prevent an abuse to state resources in the award of contracts. Success has been limited.

It is relatively easy for contractors to meet NCC registration guidelines and proof of tax compliance as well as state agencies to show that they have 'applied best practices' to ensure that its contracts fall within the guidelines. The circumstances demand more, including, but not limited to, fit and proper tests, for the owners of enterprises who receive state contracts, whether directly or by subcontracts. Main contractors must be made to account for the integrity of the firms to which they subcontract state business.

We must also urgently begin a discussion on Mr Christie's proposal for a single regulatory agency for the policing of corruption in the public sector, with the authority to prosecute offences without the directive or the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.