By Howard Campbell, Senior Gleaner WriterEIGHTEEN MONTHS after Prime Minister P. J. Patterson declared former Minister of Water and Housing Karl Blythe innocent of corruption charges in the Operation PRIDE scandal, the Rattray Report which exonerated Blythe has been obtained by The Gleaner under the Access to Information Act.
The 16-page report by former Solicitor General Kenneth Rattray, who is a Special Advisor to the Cabinet, was presented to Mr. Patterson in November 2002. It gives a scathing assessment of the investigation conducted by the Angus Commission, saying its analysis was flawed and unsubstantiated.
The Angus Commission was led by Angus Erwin, a former Permanent Secretary. It was appointed by the Prime Minister in April 2002 to probe allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the Operation PRIDE programme.
The Angus Report portrayed Mr. Blythe as an authoritative boss who overstepped the functions of his office by interfering in the day-to-day running of the scheme -- an arm of the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) -- which was launched by Government in 1995 to provide homes for working-class Jamaicans.
It also pointed to multi-million-dollar over-runs at several of the Operation's schemes and the granting of cushy consultant and contractor jobs to persons with ties to the Government.
Mr. Blythe was fired in April 2002 by Mr. Patterson, just days after the Prime Minister received the findings of the Angus Report which was also submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Auditor General and Police Commissioner Francis Forbes. In January 2003, two months after receiving the Rattray Report which he also sanctioned, Prime Minister Patterson cleared Mr. Blythe of any wrongdoing, in Parliament.
"The Rattray Report revealed that there was no incident of ministerial mismanagement or any act of personal impropriety in the execution of his responsibilities," Mr. Patterson said.
Mr. Blythe, who has maintained his innocence, demanded an apology from the Angus Commission which has not responded to Mr. Rattray's report.
Nine months after the Prime Minister's statement in Parliament, seven persons including Danhai Williams, principal of Danwills Construction, were charged by the office of the DPP with defrauding Operation PRIDE of $450 million.
The Rattray Report recognised the Angus Commission's admission that because of the urgency of the matter, its report was completed in inadequate time, which prevented the commission from interviewing key persons and examining several relevant documents.
STAKEHOLDERS
According to Mr. Rattray, this went against the mandate given to the Angus Commission which was to "consult with a wide range of stakeholders and to examine several documents". Having failed to accomplish this, Mr. Rattray says the commission's report is flawed. Its main defects, he observed, were that:
(a) It failed to "observe the rules of natural justice by basing its conclusions on assertions without providing an opportunity to those affected to respond to such assertions".
(b) "In arriving at issues relating to accountability and responsibility of those involved in Operation PRIDE, and in particular of the Minister of Water and Housing Dr. Karl Blythe, the Commission arrived at conclusions without the benefit of the fullest and most rigorous examination of the facts including documents and to have permitted itself to be influenced by hearsay of unidentified persons.
(c) "Failed to adequately separate the periods during which the alleged deficiencies existed in arriving at findings and conclusions relating to Dr. Karl Blythe. A rigorous analysis would have shown that many of the allegations which attributed responsibility related to matters which took place prior to the assumption of responsibility as Minister of Water and Housing by Dr. Karl Blythe in February 2000.
Mr. Rattray also states that the Angus Commission erred in its claims that Mr. Blythe overstepped his ministerial duties by getting involved in the daily operations of Operation PRIDE, and awarded contracts to persons whose main qualification, it seemed, was affiliation to the People's National Party (PNP).
Mr. Rattray states that the commission did not take into consideration the authority given Mr. Blythe under the Housing Act (of February 1969), which "requires a Minister of Housing to go beyond general policy issues since he is accountable and responsible, and must exercise such supervision as required for the discharge of the legal powers as are conferred on him by the Act".
As for the awarding of contracts to consultants and contractors, Mr. Rattray says the commission's assertion that these were sanctioned by Mr. Blythe were based on hearsay. He notes that of the 116 sites in the Operation PRIDE programme, contractors and professionals were already in place for 112 of them before Mr. Blythe assumed office; he adds that there is no evidence implicating the former minister in the awarding of contracts in the remaining four sites, namely at Norwood and Barrett Hall, Morant Farms and West Albion.
