Police used car saga still not over

The long-running saga of the botched arrangement between the Government and used car importer O'Brien's International Car Rental and Sales to provide 200 cars for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is still not at an end.

The matter was brought up on Tuesday during a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) press conference outlining plans for the party's 80th annual conference on Sunday.

Minister with responsibility for information, Robert Morgan, led the chorus regarding the JLP government's achievements since it assumed office in 2016.  Among the achievements listed were the repair of 163 police stations and greater mobility for the police.

Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang was asked whether the matter with O'Brien's had been resolved.

"Not fully settled,” Chang said in response.

“Since I have been the minister we have bought over 600 new cars for the police. But we still have some things, few things hanging out which are left to be settled and that's between the permanent secretary, procurement staff and the lawyers to work out,” he continued.

O'Brien's was paid nearly $427 million to procure and deliver 200 pre-owned vehicles to the JCF. The company failed to deliver all the vehicles and could not account for how $218 million was spent.

In 2018, Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) was told that 66 of the cars handed over at that time failed the rigour of regular police work and were part of the JCF's administrative fleet.

In 2021, it was disclosed that 30 used cars or $100 million in refunds were still due to the police. Former Minister of National Security, Robert Montague, had introduced the used car policy.

Morgan said the matter must be put in context of what the JCF lacked at time of the contract signing.

“We would not have to buy record numbers of police cars, ballistic vests, and so on if we had inherited them. We would not have had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on facilities such as a forensic lab for the police; such as a lab to do autopsies; infirmaries, if we had inherited them…” said Morgan.

- Erica Virtue

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