Lambert Brown, Guest Columnist There is an African proverb which says: 'When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.' In Jamaica, we are well and truly into the silly season of elections and this is when our elephants tend to fight the most. The closer the poll results are, the more the elephants are expected to fight. The likelihood of our people's suffering being greater, is therefore real, with the recently-published results of the different polls.
Take the issue of the Sandals Whitehouse fiasco. This is a classic example of the people suffering while the elephants joust for poll position. There can be absolutely no doubt in the minds of any thinking and honest Jamaican that several things went terribly wrong in the mismanagement of the construction of that south-coast hotel.
We knew from last year that the hotel took over a year longer than planned to be completed. In fact, even when it was opened in February last year, construction work was still not completed. In the hotel business, as in any other business, such delay spells economic disaster. We also knew from over a year ago that the overrun relative to budget was in the region of US$40 million. We knew also, that one of the partners in the hotel was reluctant to build without the assistance of government money. In fact, there were many false starts before government had to pump the people's money into the construction of the hotel. Simply put: without taxpayers' money, Sandals Whitehouse would only be a mere dream of Butch Stewart. The inescapable truth is that it is the Jamaican people who took the bulk of the financial risk in the hotel, not the private interest.
Ministerial responsibility
The Government is failing to admit that under the stewardship of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and its agents, the project was terribly mismanaged, and the people's money spent with gay abandon. P.J. Patterson failed to admit the errors of the UDC, for which he had ministerial responsibility. He has left an albatross around the neck of his successor Portia Simpson Miller. The Contractor General's report confirms all that we suspected to have gone wrong on the project.
Prime Minister Simpson Miller, in my view, has acted boldly in accepting the resignation of the former UDC boss. For this, she opened herself to criticism from within her own party. She placed the interest of the nation above partisan posturing. She now will have to thank the rest of the UDC board for its service over the years. Any attempt to play protector for mismanagement is going to hurt her politically. She must show that things like these, which frequently occurred under her predecessor, will not be tolerated during her tenure. She needs to separate herself and her government from the sordid practices of the past.
The private sector partner in my opinion appeared to have sat quietly by not insisting on board meetings being held, and regular updates on the project tendered and, therefore, cannot now, after the fact, claim that they are without blame. In my view, this claim lacks sincerity. Where were the letters of protest? Where were the public statements of opposition? Where were the demands for board meetings? Now people are wondering and asking why is it, that it is only after the fall-out at Air Jamaica, where some of the very same people involved in the Whitehouse overrun used to meet at board meetings, that this issue is being made public?
While we await the adjudication of the court, the issue is "top billing" in the politics of our nation. The position being adopted by the JLP and its general secretary, Karl Samuda, does not appear to me to be in the best interest of the Jamaican people. He may think it will help him in winning the battle of the elephants, but he must recall that in that battle, it is the grass that suffers.
The private partner has sued two agencies funded by the taxpayers of Jamaica. A victory in those cases for the private partner could mean the taxpayers, in addition to the US$40 million overrun, will have to pay over many more millions to those people who would not have built the hotel unless the Jamaican taxpayers took the bulk of the financial risk.
Mr. Samuda has become the vehement
champion of citing facts, figures, and an alleged report that advances the case of the private interest in the dispute against the Jamaican people.
The truth is the forensic audit took us no further than the Contractor General's report did. Neither will the Auditor General or the Public Accounts Committee take us any further.
Multibillion-dollar suit
Having come out so stridently in defence of the private interest in this dispute, what will the JLP do if they win the fight of the elephants? Will the private interest be prevailed on to drop its 'multibillion-dollar suit' against the taxpayers of Jamaica? Will the JLP settle the private partner claim for the just under US$200 million as mentioned in the press reports? Frankly, based on the arguments advanced by the JLP in support of the private interest in this dispute, they would have to be doing a major flip-flop not to pay the private interest their demands. That could be over four times the US$40 million overruns.
The Jamaican people would be correct to fear that those who pay the piper will continue to call the tune in a JLP victory at the polls. They remember well how JLP MP Andrew Gallimore was ostracised by his own party for being very critical of certain private interests when he made his budget speech last year. Political opportunism by both sides hurts the Jamaican people just as the grass is damaged when the elephants fight. Our people must reject insincerity, from whichever quarter it comes.
Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers Union and can be contacted at labpoyh@yahoo.com
