PM brushes aside calls to send team to question Mabey and Johnson officials

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has brushed aside a suggestion that the Jamaican Government should send a high-level team to the United Kingdom to question Mabey and Johnson officials in the bribery scandal involving Joseph Hibbert, a former technical officer in the ministry of transport and works.



In its report tabled in Parliament this afternoon, the office of the contractor general found that there was evidence of bank transfers suggesting that funds were transferred by Mabey and Johnson to accounts held by former state minister for transport and works, Joseph Hibbert in Jamaica and the UK.



In a question and answer session in Gordon House this afternoon, senior Opposition member, Dr Peter Phillips, highlighted that the Ghanaian authorities had dispatched a high level team of officials to London in an attempt to remove the smear of bribery from their country.



Two Ghanaian state ministers late last week resigned as a result of the ongoing bribery scandal, which also involved Iraqi officials.



The prime minister told members of the House that there was no need for Jamaica to send a high level team to the United Kingdom.



He said the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom visited Jamaica and consulted with the local police and made available to them information and documents relating to the Mabey and Johnson corruption allegations.



Mr Golding said the allegations against Joseph Hibbert, a technical officer at the time of the alleged incident, would not damage the reputation of Jamaica in the international community.



Dr Phillips insisted that the government should move decisively to clear the country’s name.