Tyrone Reid and Petrina Francis, Staff Reporters

After admitting that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) screwed up by purchasing millions of dollars worth of ammunition from a confessed criminal, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin revealed that he has sent a report to Prime Minister Bruce Golding on the matter.

At the same time, Contractor General Greg Christie told The Gleaner last night that his office has reviewed the issue and will be writing to the Cabinet today seeking its approval to launch a full investigation into the matter.

"We are very concerned about the disclosures made by The Gleaner investigations," Christie remarked.

Contractor General Act

Christie explained that Section 15 (2) of the Contractor General Act prohibits his office from independently probing contracts that have been awarded for the procurement of goods, works or services for national security purposes without the approval of the Cabinet.

Lewin told journalists yesterday that Golding, who was expected to return to the island yesterday after a meeting in Guyana, should have the report shortly after his arrival.

"And I am not going to say anything else ... that report will meet him at the airport," he said.

Lewin is the second senior officer to openly admit that an error occurred. He vowed that it would never happen again.

"We are going to screw up and we just did recently, so what are we going to do? Make sure it doesn't happen again," Lewin told the Rotary Club of Kingston's weekly luncheon held yesterday at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

Earlier this week, The Sunday Gleaner reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigations revealed that, between October 2007 and March 2008, arms broker Lance Brooks - owner and operator of Taylor and Associates in Lauderhill, Florida - illegally brokered the sale of defence articles to the JCF.

Yesterday, former National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips called for the Government to make a full disclosure on the matter.

More important, he added, is that the nation needed "to know what steps are being taken to ensure that there is no recurrence of an error of this nature and that the mechanism can stand up to public scrutiny".