Lead Stories

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

The United States firm which advised the Jamaican Government on the choice of a partner for the multimillion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has expressed confidence that the selection process will stand up to scrutiny.

A consortium led by the Belgian firm Exmar, which includes the Jamaican entity Caribbean LNG (CLNG), was selected as the preferred bidder by the Government.

The selection process is now the subject of a probe by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).

But the US company, CH-IV, says everything was done above board.

"We would not have made the recommendation if we thought there was any irregularity," CH-IV executive Joe Fossella told The Gleaner yesterday.

According to Fossella, the bidders were not aware of the matrix that would have been used in making a selection, so it was difficult for any entity to have an unfair advantage.

Fossella was responding to questions related to the decision of the OCG to investigate the process and the possibility that the Exmar bid was influenced by insider information.

He was supported by Energy Minister James Robertson, who underscored that the Government would not be spending any money nor providing a guarantee for the project, which Gleaner sources say will cost some US$600 million (J$50 billion).

According to Robertson, the Government's total expenditure will be about J$1 billion, accounting for the preparation costs.

Robertson said negotiations would continue with Exmar even as the OCG probe continues.

Christie weighs in

Last week, Contractor General Greg Christie sent a special audit team to the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) to seize records related to the deal.

Christie raised concerns that a majority shareholder of CLNG was Ian Moore, who was fired as chairman of the PCJ seven months before he established the company.

Christie also questioned the ownership of CLNG, which has as its major shareholder a similar-named company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

According to Christie, he is probing "the possibility of a potential conflict of interest, taking into consideration Mr Ian Moore's former position as board chairman of the PCJ and his now documented position as a director of the 'local' company, Caribbean LNG (Jamaica) Limited".

Christie added that his probe would look at the possibility that Moore's prior involvement in the PCJ gave him insider information and the possibility of bid-rigging.

But CH-IV yesterday argued that any information available to Exmar would have also been available to the other bidder when the project was first floated years ago.

That was at a time when the People's National Party administration first indicated that it was considering introducing LNG into Jamaica.

Yesterday, government officials argued that for the year Moore served as the chairman of the PCJ the focus was on coal, which was the alternative-energy choice of then Energy Minister Clive Mullings.

According to government officials, the decision to go in the direction of LNG was made after Moore left the PCJ.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com