MelvilleGarwin Davis, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU -
Danny Melville, whose resignation as Member of Parliament for North East St. Ann last year resulted in an embarrassing by-election loss for the ruling PNP Government, will not be re-appointed chairman of the state-run Caymanas Track Ltd. (CTL).
The decision was confirmed by Errol Ennis, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week.
According to Mr. Ennis, the tenure of the current CTL board of directors is up and the Ministry, which has full responsibility for the horse racing industry in Jamaica, is getting ready to appoint new people to the board.
"I am not trying to pre-empt the Minister who will be making the announcement soon, but yes, a new board will be appointed at CTL," Mr. Ennis said on Wednesday. "There is nothing going on here except that the tenure of the present board expired on March 31 and we need to replace them."
The tenure of the board is three years and the Ministry of Finance may or may not, re-appoint the board.
When pressed about the status of Mr. Melville, who has been credited in the past for taking CTL to the point where it is viewed as a massive money making success, last year earning over $4 billion, the State Minister said: "It could be safely assumed that Mr. Melville won't be back."
Accepted fate
Mr. Melville seems to have accepted his fate.
"I have been there since 1989," he told The Sunday Gleaner last week. "I have served 12 years and it has been a very successful 12 years...My tenure is up and I am happy to be back in private life."
At the None Such Horse of the Year Awards last year, where he was guest speaker, Mr. Melville told the audience that he would not be seeking re-election at the end of his term as Member of Parliament for his constituency.
He not only tendered his resignation as MP for North East St. Ann North East, but in a stinging parting shot at the current administration, said that an MP was merely reduced to being a corner don and one who has to be always attending funerals.
He also chastised the Government for what he said was its affinity for rewarding mediocrity.
Mr. Melville's surprising resignation not only caught the Government off guard, but also forced the People's National Party (PNP) into calling a by-election.
The loss by the PNP in North East St. Ann in March was blamed on Mr. Melville by party stalwarts, including Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
At a post-election news conference, Mr. Patterson accused Mr. Melville of poorly representing the constituency and said that it contributed to the PNP losing the election.
Mr. Melville's stint at Caymanas Park was considered over, after the scathing remarks he made against the Government last year as sources inside the racing industry expressed displeasure with his tenure at CTL.
"Even before we had indicated to the Ministry of Finance that we no longer can work with this board, the writing was on the wall for (Mr. Melville) and his crew to see," explained Vin Edwards, a trainer at Caymanas Park. "Mr. Melville accused the Government of corruption, which was endorsed by his entire board. For the Government to keep them, it would be as if the administration was indicting itself."
Reality different
Mr. Edwards, a former PNP MP for West St. Mary, said that although it is widely perceived that Mr. Melville was responsible for turning the racing industry into a multi-billion dollar a year business, the reality was quite different.
"CTL right now is a rudderless ship," Mr. Edwards said. "We already know that Mr. Melville will not be coming back. His administration has been a failure. The racing plant today looks like a pig sty and this is coming from an industry that is supposed to be making all that money."
Lee Clarke, president of the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association, said that his organisation was happy to see the departure of Mr. Melville and the rest of his board.
"The facility here is a disgrace," Mr. Clarke said. "This has been an inept board and there is no way the Trainers Association would be working with them again. Mr. Melville's real downfall, however, were the attacks he made on the Government."
