Lead Stories

Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

The leadership of an umbrella church group is to examine documents provided by Prime Minister Bruce Golding during a marathon meeting yesterday, before announcing their response to the latest revelations in the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips controversy.

President of the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches, Bishop Rowan Edwards, told The Gleaner that the documents - Golding's statement to Parliament in April and another one released yesterday - will be examined against the Sunday Gleaner article.

Convenor of the umbrella group, the Reverend Lenworth Anglin, said a meeting would be scheduled as quickly as possible to allow the entire mem-bership "to discuss it (both statements) among the group before making a response".

Meeting requested

The group was called to Jamaica House yesterday afternoon, one day after they requested a meeting to hear Golding's response to the Sunday Gleaner article.

On the weekend, the Sunday Gleaner published the contents of email correspondence which show that US-based law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips was working on behalf of the Jamaican Govern-ment, even if it was engaged by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

The emails, which were obtained under the Access to Information Act, indicated that Golding and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne were updated at intervals on the matter.

However, in his statement to Parliament in April, Golding admitted that he sanctioned the retention of Manatt on the condition that it was "undertaken by the party, not by oron behalf of the Government".

Call for resignation

Church leaders say when the prime minister met with them in June, days after they had called for his resignation, he assured them that he had disclosed every-thing he knew about the Manatt controversy.

Anglin told The Gleaner on Monday that: "If he has declared all that he knew, then we can't hold him for anything else, but we are not so sure, based on what was published yesterday (Sunday), what is the true position."

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com