Heat on PM over HEART

Pressure is mounting for Prime Minister Andrew Holness to remove Edward Gabbidon as chairman of the board of HEART/NSTA Trust because of the relationship between the multibillion-dollar training agency and Gabbidon’s company, SynCon Technologies.

Gabbidon is the chief executive officer of SynCon, a 27-year-old company that is a major tech supplier to HEART.

Transparency groups Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) and National Integrity Action (NIA) and the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) are demanding that Holness rethink Gabbidon’s status just days after the head of government downplayed conflict-of- interest concerns and asserted that he remained confident in the businessman.

Holness has direct responsibility for HEART.

According to JAMP, Gabbidon’s dual role as chairman of HEART and CEO of a key supplier is “a violation” of Section 4.2. of the General Provisions of Handbook of Public Sector Procurement Procedures, which speaks to conflict of interest.

The government document says: “Conflict of interest will arise when the individual has a direct or indirect relationship with a contractor which may affect or might reasonably be deemed by others.”

“The chairman is the primary beneficiary of any contracts he has received, and that puts this in direct contravention of the procurement rules. The public expects the prime minister to uphold and reinforce these rules in the interest of public good rather than view it as vilification of the chairman’s character,” argued JAMP’s executive director, Jeanette Calder, in response to Holness’ comments to the House of Representatives on December 14.

The prime minister said then that “not every conflict of interest suggests corruption” and that “in a small country like Jamaica, it is almost going to be inescapable, and that is why you have these standards”.

Calder, however, was not satisfied.

“The only correct course of action is to … remove the chair,” she insisted.

Between October 2006, when it started providing services to HEART, and March this year, SynCon won 196 contracts totalling approximately $303 million, according to documents the agency supplied in October through an Access to Information request.

Gabbidon first became chairman of HEART on April 3, 2017, and information HEART submitted to a parliamentary committee in July indicates that since his tenure began, 39 contracts were awarded to SynCon valued at $134.6 million – 44 per cent of the total monetary value of all contracts awarded to SynCon.

In the five years leading up to Gabbidon’s appointment, SynCon was awarded 81 contracts valued at approximately $102 million.

Advocates have contended that conflicts of interest do not mean that the persons involved committed any deliberate acts of impropriety, an observation HEART’s own policy appears to contemplate.

In response to Gleaner revelations that procurement officials had concerns about recommending a contract to SynCon, HEART said the chairman was never involved in the procurement processes because the values fell below the amount required for board approval.

In an April statement, HEART said since Gabbidon took over as chairman, he implemented and routinely reinforced the declaration of interest requirement at each board meeting.

Independent probe needed

But pointing to the recent “deluge of disclosures of improprieties” involving public bodies, principal director of NIA, Professor Trevor Munroe, said an independent investigation needs to be undertaken to determine whether there were any irregularities involved in the SynCon-HEART contract award process.

He said the Integrity Commission or the auditor general should probe the issue, especially because most of the contracts were awarded on a non-competitive basis. HEART later blocked Gleaner requests for board minutes involving SynCon.

“Taking all the circumstances into account, the chairman should step aside from the chairmanship while the probe is taking place and until completion,” said Munroe, who heads the local chapter of global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International.

The JMEA, which comprises some of the country’s most powerful business interests, said that the prime minister should not have appointed Gabbidon given the relationship between his company and the troubled state agency that is funded by a tax on employers.

“When you appoint persons to boards of public bodies, and in particular the chairman, you have to be very, very careful about the possibility of conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflict of interest, and in this case, where there was a major amount of work being done between the two companies, I would suggest that he (Gabbidon) would not have been the ideal candidate to appoint as chairman,” said John Mahfood, the association’s president.

He said Holness can appoint different people to the position who have no business relations with HEART.

“In Jamaica, there is too much corruption, too much nepotism, too much apparent conflicts of interest, and you want to discourage that from happening,” Mahfood said, noting the recent passage of regulations to improve board appointments and governance.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has also called for Holness to remove Gabbidon as chairman.

“PM, HEART is a strategic agency. That chairman has had issues raised. If I were you, I would remove him and install a new board,” Golding told Holness, who revealed last week that HEART spent $5.7 million on a retreat that the Opposition has called “excessive” in light of the economic hit from COVID-19.

Holness also acknowledged that HEART has been having problems meeting some of its policy objectives, a situation that has forced the administration to undertake a strategic review of the agency.

This newspaper obtained a chain of emails in which chair of HEART’s procurement committee, Marsha Whyte-Fletcher, spoke of a “clear conflict of interest” relating to a 2019 contract and sought advice from the agency’s legal officer, Desrine Pearson.

Pearson said that while the observation about a potential conflict of interest was “prudent and reasonable” given the committee’s responsibility, she could not make a determination as to whether there was actual conflict of interest.

Pearson acknowledged receiving from the procurement committee a statement of affiliation form submitted by Gabbidon but not a declaration of interest the committee mentioned in its request for advice.

However, the lawyer pointed to HEART’s code of ethics, which defines a conflict of interest as occurring “where a public officer has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence or to appear to be capable of influencing the objective exercise of his official duties”.

According to Section 42 of the Public Procurement Act, a procuring entity “shall exclude a person, firm or entity from procurement processes if the person, firm, or entity has an unfair competitive advantage or a conflict of interest that is likely to impair the integrity” of procurement processes.

The Gleaner emailed 13 questions to Gabbidon on the conflict-of-interest situation, among other issues, on November 9. There has been no response.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com