Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner ReporterPRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding has scheduled an urgent meeting with Minister of Transport, Mike Henry, and members of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company's (JUTC) board tomorrow to discuss the future management of the state-owned bus company after the brutal slaying of its Chairman Douglas Chambers at the company's depot Friday afternoon.
Come Tuesday, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) will also meet to draft a proposal of measures to address the burgeoning crime situation.
Meanwhile, the transport minister will head the trouble-plagued bus company until a new chairman is appointed.
Strong leads
The police say they are following strong leads into the shooting death of Chambers who was gunned down as he purchased cigarettes at the entrance of the JUTC depot in Spanish Town, St Catherine.
Reports are that he was taking a break from a meeting with representatives from the University and Allied Workers Union and the JUTC.
Chambers sustained multiple gunshot wounds and died on the spot.
Addressing justices of the peace at a meeting of lay magistrates at the Medallion Hall Hotel in Liguanea, St Andrew, yesterday, Minister of National Security Colonel Trevor MacMillan said citizens who might have witnessed the incident have been cooperating with the police.
"I have been advised by the commissioner [of police] that people in the area have been cooperating significantly with the police and this matter should come to a finality very shortly," he said.
Urged cooperation
MacMillan lauded the cooperation of the citizens and urged all Jamaicans who have witnessed criminal activities to do the same.
"This is the same reaction - and it is obviously the start of something that happened when two constables were killed in Trench Town. The people in Trench Town revolted. They gave the police all the information. Two have been caught and they are looking for the other two. Now this is what we need right across the country," he said.
He declined to comment on whether the Government would be fast-tracking the implementation of recently announced initiatives to curb the murder rate.
"We are looking at the legality and the constitutionality of various things which we have to do and then we will see what happens there," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
JUTC board members are still adjusting to the news of the death of their chairman. Board member Dennis Chung said that news had not yet "sunk in" for some members.
"For some of us, the death hasn't hit home. It is just coming into reality," Chung said.
Support the police
In a media release, PSOJ President Chris Zacca called on citizens to support the police in their investigations:
"As a member of the private sector who ultimately sacrificed his life while working in earnest to address the corruption, waste and inefficiency in this loss-making public entity, all Jamaicans must acknowledge Mr Chambers for his selfless dedication to serving his country," said Zacca.
He added: "The attack on the chairman of a major state-owned enterprise represents an attack on the very state itself, and the nation must recognise that it is in a heightened state of crisis and the measures needed to deal with such crises need to be implemented forthwith."
An accountant, Chambers took leave from his firm, Chambers, Henry and Partners, to chair the board of the JUTC in October of last year, to try and improve the efficiency of the bus company which was losing up to J$100 million annually.
However, Chambers' management style was often viewed as polemical by some JUTC employees who accused him of verbal abuse and using intimidatory tactics.
The company was in the middle of another redundancy exercise that would see over 400 employees lose their jobs when Chambers was shot dead.
Chambers' JUTC timeline
October 2007: Accountant Douglas Chambers is appointed chairman of the board of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).
October 2007: Five senior managers cut within only a few weeks of Chambers' appointment.
November 2007: JUTC advertises a vacancy for six top executives.
January 2008: In early January, workers staged a demonstration to protest against sums owed to them by the company. They also claim that Chambers has been intimidating them and verbally abusing them.
January 2008: JUTC announces that 340 employees are to be made redundant in February.
June 2008: JUTC makes an additional 400 employees' positions redundant. Employees stay off the job for two days following the announcement in protest against the decision.
How Chambers joined the JUTC
DURING A visit to Transport Minister Mike Henry's home last Sunday, Douglas Chambers got some advice from Henry's wife, Dawn.
"She told him he should be careful, but he just smiled. I guess Douglas didn't take some things seriously," Henry told The Sunday Gleaner.
Chambers, 42, was slain by gunmen at the entrance of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company's Spanish Town depot Friday afternoon. He had taken a smoke break from a meeting with trade union leaders to discuss the future of over 400 workers.
Spoke his mind
The feisty Chambers knocked heads with workers, unions and management during his eight-month tenure. Henry, who knew Chambers for over 20 years, said he was not afraid to speak his mind.
"You and he would have harsh words but later he would say something like, 'bwoy Mike, is the runnings'," Henry said.
The Central Clarendon member of parliament met Chambers in the late 1980s when he (Henry) was a member of Edward Seaga's Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government, and recruiting new members for the party.
Chambers, a Kingston College 'old boy', was a budding chartered accountant.
"He was concerned about the drift of the country and we developed a strong relationship that I could rely on and trust," Henry said.
Official auditor
That 'trust' was so strong, Chambers became Henry's official auditor. In the 1990s, as his reputation as an auditor grew with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Henry said Chambers toyed with the idea of contesting the South St Andrew seat in general elections on a JLP ticket.
When the JLP returned to government after 18 years last September, Henry was appointed to head the transport ministry. His former protégé, head of the Chambers, Henry and Partners accounting firm, was the first to offer a helping hand.
"We thought the JUTC was the perfect place he and a young team could help to transform," said Henry.
$1 a year
Chambers took leave from his firm and assumed chairmanship of the struggling company in October, for the symbolic salary of $1 a year. He said the JUTC was haemorrhaging financially with losses of J$30 million a month.
His impact was instant. In October, he fired five managers and two months later over 340 workers were let go in the first phase of a restructuring programme.
The latter sparked a major row with workers and union leaders.
Henry said Chambers was in the process of handing in a comprehensive report to be presented to Cabinet. He was also looking forward to returning to his company in December when his contract with the JUTC would expire.
Douglas Chambers is survived by a wife and two daughters.
- Howard Campbell
