Christie, PNP fume at airline revenue deals

Tourism officials yesterday moved quickly to correct a Gleaner report than an additional US$1.4 million (J$123.2) was being paid to American Airlines (AA) as part of an airlift agreement entered into in 2008.

However, that has opened a can of worms, with Contractor General Greg Christie voicing major concern about the probity of the deal.

In their clarification, the tourism officials told The Gleaner that the Government had discharged its financial responsibilities under the AA deal.

They said the additional US$1.4 million announced by Information Minister Daryl Vaz on Wednesday represented a deal with US Airways, which had been entered into in 2009.

That additional sum moved the Government's payment to US Airways to US$1.8 million.

According to the tourism officials, the Cabinet has approved a second deal with US Airways capped at US$1 million for the Phoenix, Arizona, gateway.

But news of the deal yesterday caused the contractor general to take the unusual decision of making public communi-cations from his office before they are tabled in Parliament.

"As an independent commission of the Parliament of Jamaica, which is obliged to act solely in the interests of the people of Jamaica and to ensure that government contracts are awarded in circumstances which do not involve irregularity or impropriety, I have invoked the special powers which are reserved to a contractor general," Christie said in a release.

He said he made the decision to go public having submitted the information to Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett from April 26 and not seeing them tabled in Parliament.

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeill, has urged the auditor general to investigate the Ministry of Tourism's expenditure on the revenue-guarantee arrangements.

McNeill said the People's National Party was alarmed at the contractor general's findings about procedural breaches.

"When this occurred the first time with American Airlines, I warned the prime minister then that if the minister of tourism, Edmund Bartlett, was not held accountable or censured, he would be doomed to repeat his mistakes. This has now happened," said McNeill.