OCG investigator heads to Singapore

Carla-Gaye Kelly, senior special investigator in the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), is the only Jamaican who has been selected by the government of Singapore and the Commonwealth Secretariat to participate in a major two-week Corruption Management Training Programme for Investigators, which will take place in Singapore between February 20 and March 2, 2012.

The programme, which is being jointly sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Assistance and the Singapore Cooperation Programme of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is designed for heads and supervisors of investigation units of anti-corruption commissions and regulatory bodies of Commonwealth member countries.

Kelly, who becomes the fifth OCG officer to benefit from specialised anti-corruption training in Singapore, was recommended to the Commonwealth Secretariat by Contractor General Greg Christie.

The primary objective of the training programme, at which 25 delegates drawn from 20 Commonwealth countries will be in attendance, is to stimulate participants to develop their capacities and skills to investigate corruption in their own countries.

The programme will share the Singapore experience in managing corruption, and will focus on the effective conduct of investigations as well as the different strategies and approaches to investigation and forensics in tackling corruption. The programme will also give participants an appreciation and understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts which underpin forensic investigation.

Kelly has led several major OCG special investigations, under the supervision of the Contractor General and the OCG's chief investigator. One of Kelly's most recent high-profile investigations was the OCG's liquefied natural gas (LNG) probe which, among other things, found extensive irregularities in the tendering process for the proposed financing, development, ownership and operation of an LNG regasification terminal and natural gas transportation system for Jamaica. In consequence of Kelly's findings, the Government of Jamaica was forced to abandon the previous tender process in which the Exmar Consortium was selected as the preferred bidder.