FINANCE MINISTER Audley Shaw has admitted to instructing the Public Accountability Inspectorate (PIA) to probe all transactions between the Government of Jamaica and Dehring, Bunting and Golding.

Shaw, who was responding to questions from Peter Bunting in the House of Representatives recently, said based on a report from the Office of the Contractor General on a set of transactions involving the company and the Government he has ordered further probe.

"I brought evidence to this honourable House pointing out the concerns that I had with the appropriateness, the business arrangements, that it was not transparent and that it was not subject to competitive tender," he said of one the transactions which he had called a sweetheart deal.

"It was subsequently the subject of a review and a report by the contractor general who himself, noted some areas on concerns in relation to the transaction. On that basis, I made the decision that I would pursue further examples of this possibility," Shaw said.

But Bunting, the member of parliament for Central Manchester and general secretary of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP), said Shaw is using the PIA to harass him.

He told the House of Representatives that the contractor general did not uphold the allegations of a sweet-heart deal made by Shaw. He also said PIA appears to be "just a Gestapo-like unit, staffed by political hats, set up to achieve partisan political ends."

Reading from a circular dated November 1, 2010 to the PIA, signed by Financial Secretary Wesley Hughes, which said "Minister Shaw is requesting a report on 'all transactions which took place between Dehring, Bunting and Golding and the Ministry and Finance and the Public Service, as well as all other government agencies, companies and statutory bodies between 2000 and 2007'", Bunting claimed the minister's actions are far from pure.

Shaw, meanwhile, said "the PIA has received no such instructions to investigate any member's business with the government." He, however, said "business between the private sector and the Government is not private business."

In his August 2010 report, Contractor General Greg Christie said he was unable to conclusively determine if the transaction between the Government and Dehring Bunting and Golding was fair, transparent and/or indicative of the most beneficial terms and conditions which could have been derived by the GOJ, given the lack of competition.

The probe was initiated after Shaw alleged that deals were executed by the Ministry of Finance, then headed by the PNP's Dr Omar Davies, under circumstances which may have been irregular, improper or lacking in transparency and fairness, and not in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Contractor General Act and the Government Procurement Procedures and Guidelines.

The deals involved the sale of government receivables to Dehring, Bunting and Golding in which Bunting was a principal.