SUPER GREG - US says Christie trying to raise the bar on corruption

• Examined ways to assist the contractor general in his aggressive campaign
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Contractor General Greg Christie's fearless anti-corruption campaign drew admiration from diplomats at the United States Embassy in Kingston from as far back as 2007.

In a diplomatic cable sent to their superiors in Washington, the Americans lauded Christie for his no-holds-barred approach, which was being undertaken against the background of perceived endemic corruption in high places.

According to the embassy officials, Christie was willing to pursue his responsibilities energetically, in contrast with his predecessors, and to keep specific corruption issues before the public for longer periods.

"In the past, irregularities were sometimes exposed and then, after a couple of days of play in the media, they were quietly forgotten," embassy officials said in a diplomatic cable.

The Americans also bought Christie's arguments that he was apolitical. "Christie insists convincingly that he is non-political," the cable said.

So impressed were the Americans by the audacity displayed by Christie in his bid to stamp out corruption in the public sector that they decided to explore ways to strengthen the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).

"NASDIR (the acting director of the narcotics affairs section) expressed support for the work being done by Christie and explained the embassy's interest in engaging more proactively in anti-corruption efforts," said the cable.

Meeting with christie

According to the cable, a copy of which was obtained by WikiLeaks and accessed by The Gleaner, the embassy's NASDIR met with Christie on March 1, 2007, as part of a desire to better understand the functions of the heads of Jamaican government entities that play key roles in promoting better governance.

"NASDIR mentioned that we would be working with other donors, particularly the British and Canadians, to identify ways in which we can be of assistance," the diplomatic cable revealed.

The Americans claimed that Christie wrote a letter to them six days after that meeting outlining that he had attempted to address resource shortfalls through a restructuring assessment conducted in 2006.

But in order "to have a clearer view of needs for possible outside assistance to his office, Christie indicated that he must wait until April to learn of Cabinet's decision on the budget requests submitted by his office".

However, the cable said Christie made an urgent request for training of his staff in areas including, but not limited to, anti-corruption management and governance, conduct of investigations, forensic auditing and auditing techniques, as well as fraud detection.

Since his appointment to the OCG in late 2005, Christie has taken some flak from politicians and other public officials for the aggressive and public manner in which he has tackled corruption and nepotism in the State's contract awards process.

Christie has long clamoured for more powers to be bestowed upon the OCG, and the Americans agree.

"Although his powers are limited, Christie demonstrates courage in exposing irregularities and violations with respect to government contracts," read another section of the diplomatic cable.

It added: "Over the years, it has been openly speculated that the awarding of government contracts was a major avenue of public corruption. The party in power would make an effort to reward loyal supporters (campaign contributors) with government contracts."

Pork-barrel contracts

The Americans also noted that the problem of using public contracts as a pork barrel is "compounded when loyal party supporters sit on public bodies that award contracts to private companies owned by the same person".

The US diplomats even suggested that the transparency and accountability bar in Jamaica was pretty low. "Such things might be considered a conflict of interest, maybe not in Jamaica," the cable stated.

One of the shortcomings of the OCG identified by the American diplomats was the restriction placed on the contractor general with respect to contracts or licensing matters involving the security forces.

"The CG can monitor these documents, but cannot conduct investigations without express authorisation of Cabinet," the Americans noted in the diplomatic cable.