Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
FORMER LOCAL Government Minister Arnold Bertram no longer has hold on the lease for the premises he used as Member of Parliament in the North Western St. Ann constituency.
But he said he was in no position to hand over the keys to the office to the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Verna Parchment who beat him in the general election.
In an interview late yesterday, Mr. Bertram said his lease arrangement with the Commissioner of Lands became null and void when he lost the seat in the October 16 general election.
"It does not matter how long the lease was for. The dream that I had was that the office would have been used by the Member of Parliament. I leased it as Arnold Bertram the MP. If I win, I use the office. If I lose, the arrangement with me is null and void, but the sitting MP would now make their arrangement," he said yesterday.
According to him, and clearly responding to the editorial in yesterday's Gleaner, "any jackass wanting to know the facts could simply have checked with the Commissioner of Lands."
He said he began using the facility as an office shortly after September 3, when vendors who were dislocated from the Browns Town market returned to the market, as the first phase of refurbishment was completed.
Mr. Bertram said although his intention was clear, the office could not have been established as the office of the Member of Parliament until Parliament makes that declaration. He said that declaration could not have been made until April with the new Budget.
"Once that approval is made then whoever is the Member of Parliament would be entitled to use it," he said.
He said what he was trying to establish was a similar situation to what exists in Jamaica House, where it is the official residence of the Prime Minister irrespective of who wins.
Mr. Bertram said, "If Miss Parchment wants to use the office, she must apply to the Commissoner of Lands to do so."
In a release from the Ministry of Local Government yesterday, Permanent Secretary Barbara James said the office occupied by Mr. Bertram is a facility to house vendors until refurbishment of the Brown's Town market was completed.
According to Mrs. James, "No funds from that Ministry was used to erect any facility for the Member of Parliament in North Western St. Ann."
Yesterday's Gleaner editorial had said that Mr. Bertram used state funds to build and occupy an office on lands owned by the National Works Agency.
