GUILTY!

A former public official at a now shuttered government-owned company that was smeared by allegations of financial impropriety was sent to prison yesterday after he was convicted on corruption-related charges.

Lawrence Pommels, a former acting chief engineer and operations engineer at the scandal-scarred National Energy Solutions Limited (NESOL), was sentenced to nine months in prison by a judge at the St Catherine Parish Court after he ended his criminal trial by entering a plea of guilty.

The trial commenced in 2022 after he pleaded not guilty.

NESOL, which was established in 2015 to take over the functions of the Rural Electrification Programme, was shuttered by the Andrew Holness-led Government in late 2019 and its functions subsumed under the energy ministry amid allegations of financial impropriety.

Pommels pleaded guilty to six counts of possession of criminal property, an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act, and two breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act (CPA), court records revealed.

$20-million bribe offer

One of the CPA breaches related to a $20-million bribe he offered a police investigator at the time of his arrest. The bribe was secretly recorded.

The prison sentence was in keeping with a plea deal Pommels struck with prosecutors through his attorney, law enforcement sources disclosed.

The plea agreement also requires him to forfeit “over 80 per cent” of the total value of the four high-end luxury vehicles and $30 million in cash that were taken from him during his 2018 arrest and were restrained by a court order.

The vehicles include a BMW X6 and an Audi sport utility vehicle.

A forfeiture hearing is scheduled for June 20 in the St Catherine Circuit Court.

Calls to his attorney, Dwight Sibblies, yesterday went unanswered.

Pommels was first employed as operations engineer at NESOL amid questions about his qualification for the post and was later appointed to act as chief engineer after the incumbent went on extended leave.

Among the improprieties reported at NESOL was a 2018 disclosure before Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) that he was allowed to sign NESOL-issued cheques for up to seven months after his stint as acting chief engineer ended in November 2017.

Some of the crimes for which he pleaded guilty were committed during his tenure as acting chief engineer.

In another instance, the PAAC was also told in September 2018 that a private firm, Peak Energy Solutions, was hired by NESOL without a contract in place and paid $12 million for services rendered.

The work was verified by Pommels in his capacity as operations engineer, committee members were told.

The former public official was arrested in New Harbour, St Catherine, during an operation led by the police Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Division and the Financial Investigations Division.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com