Daraine Luton and Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporters

Sangster It is my privilege to serve the jutc.

JAMAICA LABOUR Party (JLP) insider Bindley Sangster has joined a growing list of party supporters to be appointed to executive positions in public entities.

Sangster is now the acting managing director at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC). He was the JLPs defeated candidate for North Central Clarendon in the 1993 parliamentary elections.

His appointment at the JUTC brings to six the number of JLP-aligned persons who have been appointed to executive positions in public agencies since the party returned to power in September last year after 18 years in the political wilderness.

confirmation

Sources told The Sunday Gleaner that a notice was posted at the Twickenham Park depot announcing that Sangster would take up his appointment on October 11, 2008. A public announcement of the appointment was never made. We learnt that Sangster was employed to the bus company when our news team called to get information on a different matter. We were told by an employee that Sangster was the man to answer our questions.

When contacted, Reginald Allen, director of communications in the Ministry of Transport and Works, read a news release over the telephone confirming Sangsters appointment.

Mr Sangster will now assume overall responsibility for planning, coordinating and controlling the operations of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company, read the statement from JUTC chairman Robin Levy.

Sangster declined an interview with our news team but through Allen said:

Having worked with the staff of the JUTC first as a member of the board and since the 7th of June, on a day-to-day basis in a voluntary management capacity I have developed a significant level of respect for what they (the staff) are doing, having suffered severe trauma, and it is therefore my privilege to continue to work and serve the JUTC in a more formidable capacity in the immediate future.

new post

The post of acting managing director is a new one at the JUTC. Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry had hinted he would change the structure of the JUTC management following the murder of its chairman, Douglas Chambers, in June this year.

Allen told The Sunday Gleaner that the appointment is temporary and the post could disappear when a president is identified.

Sangster had been a member of the JUTC board since October 2007. Allen said that prior to his appointment, Sangster had assumed “certain oversight responsibilities on the death of Chambers and was doing well”.

Allen admits that Sangster had worked for the minister as manager at Henry’s book store located at the Norman Manley International Airport, but “he is no longer employed there”.

qualified for job

The ministry contends that Sangster, who holds an MBA in finance, is qualified to hold the job. Allen said that Sangster has served as operations and marketing manager at Singer Sewing Machine company and managing director of Sangster’s Book Stores.

But the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is not amused. When the party was contacted by The Sunday Gleaner, its chairman, Robert Pickersgill, said Sangster’s appointment came as a surprise.

“We remain concerned about the appointment of political activists to executive positions in agencies,” Pickersgill says.

nothing wrong

Pickersgill, whose party, had been chastised for giving jobs to persons linked to the PNP, says there is nothing wrong with political appointments, but said there should be no place for appointing activists to executive positions.

“In agencies where you have the chairman and the board who are political appointees, the CEO, who would deal directly with the permanent secretary, could do without the political taint,” Pickersgill argues.

Joan Gordon-Webley, Shirley Williams, Omer Thomas and Marcia Forbes are active supporters of the JLP to be appointed to executive positions in the pubic service since the Bruce Golding administration came to power.

Gordon-Webley, who lost in her bid to win South East St Andrew for the JLP, was rewarded with the job of executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority after the general election.

Likewise, Shirley Williams, who was a member of the JLP’s Shadow Cabinet before the general election, was made executive chairman of Air Jamaica.

Omer Thomas, who failed to win Eastern St Thomas, was named head of the Rural Agricultural Development Agency, but resigned shortly after the appointment when questions were raised about his academic credentials.

Marcia Forbes was appointed a few weeks ago as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mining and Telecommunications, but her appointment has triggered controversy.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com.