Opposition throws out challenge to Golding
Published:Friday | August 27, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
The Opposition People's National Party (PNP) has issued a challenge to Prime Minister Bruce Golding as it turns up the heat on the Government over the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair.
But it appears the Government is unlikely to take on the challenge as the administration is adamant the Opposition does not have the moral authority to speak.
"I am issuing a challenge to the prime minister and the Government to provide documentation relating to any contract that existed between the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the lobby firm, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips," declared Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller yesterday.
Simpson Miller argued that this should be easy for Golding, who has repeatedly claimed that it was the JLP and not the Government which engaged the law firm.
"Since, as they claim, it is a contract between the JLP and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, the leader of the JLP should give the law firm the authority to disclose the arrangements in an effort to provide closure," Simpson Miller said during a media briefing at the PNP's Old Hope Road headquarters in St Andrew.
According to Simpson Miller, the Government cannot expect Jamaica to trust its word on the Manatt affair based on what has taken place over the past year.
While pointing to the emails published by The Sunday Gleaner on the weekend, Simpson Miller said all the documents produced so far challenge the Government's claim that it had not engaged the law firm.
Breach of trust
"Every piece of documentation, including those provided by the Government, point in a direction away from the position which the Government steadfastly holds," Simpson Miller said.
She was supported by the chairman of the PNP's communication commission, Dr Peter Phillips, who charged that the emails involving Solicitor General Douglas Leys, attorney-at-law Harold Brady and Manatt officials reflect "the Government's duplicity, misrepresentation of the facts and breach of public trust".
"It is clear that the prime minister's claim that the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips arrangement was a purely party arrangement cannot be sustained," Phillips claimed.
But minister with responsibility for information Daryl Vaz yesterday charged that the PNP is yet to provide the country with proof that it repaid the $31 million it said it returned to the Dutch firm Trafigura Beheer more than four years ago.
"This government is not playing tit-for-tat with Trafigura. We admit that we made a mistake with the handling of the Manatt issue, but there was no taxpayer money involved and nothing criminal while the Trafigura donation is still being investigated and criminal charges could be placed against persons for bribing public officials in Jamaica," Vaz said as he pointed to an ongoing probe by Dutch prosecutors.
"In the past, I have indicated on several occasions that the PNP has no moral authority or credibility and, based on its performance during its 18 years in office, when it speaks about corruption, it shows more nerve than a bad tooth," added Vaz.
He reiterated his claim that the Government was prepared to answer any legitimate questions about the Manatt issue.