Shaw bites back - Former finance minister takes on Christie for rebuttal of statements on LNG contract award
Published:Wednesday | May 8, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
A verbal battle between former Finance Minister Audley Shaw and ex-Contractor General Greg Christie intensified yesterday with the politician unleashing a counteraction to the salvo fired days earlier.
The confrontation between the two public figures, reputed for their fiery candour, showed no sign of easing yesterday when Shaw, the opposition spokesman on finance, scolded Christie for abusing his powers by donning "his mantle of infallibility".
Shaw roundly rejected suggestions by Christie, who has earned acclaim as well as criticisms for his refusal to recoil from battles with public servants whom he deemed errant in the pursuit of their duties.
DPP PULLED IN
Yesterday, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was pulled into the fracas.
"Despite the ruling of the DPP, the former contractor general, no doubt still endowed with his mantle of infallibility, apparently refused to accept the authoritative ruling of the DPP, and instead belligerently continues his trials by public press in casting aspersions and innuendoes," charged Shaw in a statement yesterday.
In an article published in The Sunday Gleaner, coming out of a meeting with the newspaper's senior journalists last week, Shaw accused Christie of using his powers to bully the former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration into cutting short its deal with liquefied natural gas (LNG) consortium, Exmar.
But in a rapid-fire rebuttal, Christie, on Sunday, claimed that the politician's utterances reflected a "disregard and lack of respect for the rule of law", and "also an apparent unbridled willingness to deliberately mislead an unsuspecting public".
Yesterday, Shaw hit back.
"I wish to state categorically that I stand firmly and fully by the opinion I expressed at the Gleaner editorial meeting last week.
"The fact is that the 609-page report by the then contractor general on the procurement of LNG via Exmar's technology, to which he referred … provided no sound basis on which such an important project should have been halted and the preferred bidder status of Exmar withdrawn," Shaw declared.
This, he said, was especially so in circumstances where it was a private-sector investment and there would be no expenditure of government funds.
Added Shaw: "Indeed, the then contractor general referred the contract award to the commissioner of police and the DPP requesting an investigation into whether public officials had used their positions in a "conspiratorial, fraudulent, corrupt and clandestine way to ensure a future illicit benefit for themselves".
Shaw noted that after his review, Christie concluded: "In the circumstances under review, Exmar Consortium was at a clear advantage when they submitted their proposal to the Technical Valuation Committee … . However, we identified no evidential, whether direct or circumstantial, basis to draw the inference that their advantageous position was the result of bid-rigging or corruption on the part of Mr Ian Moore or Mr Stephen Wedderburn."
Wedderburn was coordinator of the LNG project while Moore was chairman of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.
"I find it rather curious that while Mr Christie sought to single-out the opinion of a law firm and the LNG Steering Committee, he neglected to mention the ruling of the foremost authority in this matter - the DPP," Shaw scoffed.
He added: "So much for Mr Christie's regard and respect for the rule of law. And is this not 'an apparent unbridled willingness to deliberately mislead an unsuspecting public'?"
Said Shaw: "There was no finding of illegality. My view remains steadfast that had the Cabinet kept with its original decision to grant Exmar (a global leader in the LNG regasification industry) the contract, which would later have been vindicated by the ruling of the DPP, LNG-powered energy would be rolling out today and the cost of electricity would be coming down now for all consumers, householders and businesses alike."