OCG Completes Special Investigation Into The Circumstances Surrounding Procurement and Contract Award Issues at the National Youth Service

 Kingston; December 28, 2012 – The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has completed its Special Report of Investigation into the circumstances surrounding procurement and contract award issues at the National Youth Service.

The OCG’s Special Investigation was initiated following upon the  receipt of a letter which was dated August 10, 2009, from Mrs. Audrey Sewell, the then Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education (MoE), in which she sought the intervention of the OCG to investigate, inter alia, the contract award practices of the NYS and to provide clarification regarding the procedures and approval requirements which govern procurements that are undertaken by Public Bodies and, in particular, the NYS.

The Permanent Secretary’s letter of August 10, 2009, made direct reference to an NYS Invitation to Tender for Transportation Services, and the alleged subsequent execution of a contract between the NYS and Jamaica Transport Service (JTS). The alleged contract, based upon the correspondence, had raised concerns for the members of the Board of Directors of the NYS and had already been the subject of an Investigation by the Internal Auditors of the Ministry of Education.

In keeping with the requirements of the Contractor General Act, copies of the OCG’s Report of Investigation into the matter were this morning despatched by the Acting Contractor General to eight (8) State Authorities, namely the Minister of Education, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, the Executive Director, NYS, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, the Clerk to the Houses of Parliament, the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Auditor General.

Section 20 (1) of the Contractor General Act provides as follows:

“After conducting an investigation under this Act, a Contractor General shall, in writing, inform the principal officer of the public body concerned and the Minister having portfolio responsibility therefor of the result of that investigation and make such recommendations as he considers necessary in respect of the matter which was investigated”.

Further, it is instructive to note that Section 21 of the Act provides as follows:

“If a Contractor General finds, during the course of his investigations or on the conclusion thereof that there is evidence of a breach of duty or misconduct or criminal offence on the part of an officer or member of a Public Body, he shall refer the matter to the person or persons competent to take such disciplinary or other proceeding as may be appropriate against that officer or member and in all such cases shall lay a special report before Parliament”.

Section 28 (3) of the Contractor General Act requires the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate to have OCG Reports of Investigation tabled in both Houses of Parliament ‘as soon as possible’.

As is customary, the Clerk to the Houses has been provided with a compact disc which bears a full electronic copy of the OCG’s Special Report of Investigation.

In the interest of public transparency, and acting in pursuance of the special powers that are reserved to a Contractor General by Section 28 (4) of the Contractor General Act, the OCG’s 263 page Special Report of Investigation into the matter will be published on the OCG’s website at www.ocg.gov.jm, but only after the Report has been formally laid in both Houses of Parliament.

The OCG wishes to caution that where Reports of its Special Investigations find their way into the Media prior to the tabling of the said Reports in the Houses of Parliament, or before the formal posting of same on the OCG’s official website, care should be taken to disassociate any such publication from the OCG.