THE CONTRACTOR General's damning report into the award of contracts by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC) also fingered its current acting managing director, Bindley Sangster, who was the then Chairman of the Finance Committee of the JUTC, for allegedly misleading the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).As part of his findings into the JUTC probe the Contractor General revealed the following:
Two members of the JUTC's Procurement Committee indicated that they did not influence, recommended and/or approve the procurement of the services of Simber Productions Limited. Further, based upon the representations that were made by the members of the JUTC Procurement Committee, the OCG found that they were not and are not collectively conversant with the circumstances under which the contracts were awarded to Simber Productions Limited. The records revealed that there has been only one meeting of the JUTC's Procurement Committee since August 1, 2007. The meeting was held on February 26, 2008 and the official records revealed that the deliberations dealt only with the recommendation for the award of a contract to Protec-tion and Security Limited for the provision of security services to all JUTC locations. However, in the JUTC's 2008 1st Quarter and 2nd Quarter Quarterly Contract Awards (QCA) Reports, which were submitted to the OCG, formal declarations were made that the contracts that were awarded by the JUTC to Simber Produc-tions Limited, among others, were evaluated by the JUTC Procurement Committee and had received the approval of the Committee.
The referenced two (2) QCA reports were signed and certified, respectively, by Douglas Chambers, in his capacity as the then Chairman of the JUTC, and by Bindley Sangster, in his capacity as the then Chairman of the Finance Committee of the JUTC, and signified their certification of the accuracy of the particulars and information which was being conveyed therein. Section 29 (a) of the Contractor General's Act makes it a criminal offence, inter alia, for any person to wilfully mislead or make a false statement to mislead a Contractor General in the execution of his functions. In the circumstances, there is prima facie evidence that both Douglas Chambers and Bindley Sangster had wilfully made false written declarations to the Contractor General in breach of Section 29 (a) of the Contractor General's Act and, in so doing, had committed a criminal offence under the Contractor General's Act.
