About Those Hefty Increases For Politicians

DECEMBER 1991: Minister of Mining and Energy Horace Clarke resigned over the scan­dal involv­ing a waiv­er of $29.5 mil­lion in duties that Shell Company West Indies should have paid to the Government on import­ed gaso­lene. He remained a mem­ber of parliament.

MAY 2001: Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Errol Ennis resigned on May 29, fol­low­ing rev­e­la­tions that at least sev­en cheques he had ten­dered to set­tle gam­bling debts had bounced. A state­ment from the Office of the Prime Minister said that Ennis had resigned his min­is­te­r­i­al post with imme­di­ate effect.

APRIL 2002: Dr Karl Blythe resigned as min­is­ter of water and hous­ing in the wake of a report from a four-mem­ber com­mis­sion that sug­gest­ed that he act­ed improp­er­ly as min­is­ter with respon­si­bil­i­ty for the Operation PRIDE pro­gramme. The report said Blythe inter­fered in the day-to-day man­age­ment of the Operation PRIDE schemes and flout­ed guide­lines. He resigned on April 13, 2002.

OCTOBER 2006: Information and Development Minister Colin Campbell was forced to resign from the Cabinet and as gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the People’s National Party in October 2006, approx­i­mate­ly a week after Opposition Leader Bruce Golding divulged infor­ma­tion that Trafigura Beheer, a Dutch com­pa­ny with busi­ness arrange­ments with the Government, made a $31-mil­lion trans­ac­tion to an account called CCOC Associates which bore Campbell’s sig­na­ture. Campbell’s res­ig­na­tion took effect on October 9, 2006.

OCTOBER 2007: Kern Spencer resigned as par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in the Ministry of Science and Technology, fol­low­ing ques­tions over the Cuban light bulb pro­gramme when it was divulged that the People’s National Party spent more than $276.5 mil­lion to dis­trib­ute four mil­lion free light bulbs donat­ed by the Cuban gov­ern­ment. Spencer open­ly wept in Parliament upon hear­ing news that the Fraud Squad and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions were inves­ti­gat­ing the inci­dent. Years lat­er, he was freed of the charges after the pros­e­cu­tion failed to prove its case against him and then co-accused Coleen Wright.

JULY 2009: Jamaica Labour Party’s State Minister for Transport and Work Joseph Hibbert resigned six months after he was named a sub­ject in a cor­rup­tion probe by inves­ti­ga­tors in the United Kingdom. Hibbert, in a let­ter to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, said: “This res­ig­na­tion will allow me the time and free­dom to clear my name and my integri­ty as for­mer chief tech­ni­cal direc­tor in the Ministry of Transport and Works dur­ing the 1990s to which the alle­ga­tions refer.”

MAY 2010: Government Senator and State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr Ronald Robinson, resigned as sen­a­tor and junior min­is­ter in wake of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair that dogged the Government of Jamaica in rela­tion to the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extra­di­tion affair. In his res­ig­na­tion let­ter to the prime min­is­ter, dat­ed May 20, 2010, Robinson apol­o­gised for his role in the Manatt scan­dal and not­ed his wife’s ill health as anoth­er rea­son for his resignation.

NOVEMBER 2011: Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion to Prime Minister Andrew Holness due to con­cerns over the man­age­ment of projects by the National Works Agency (NWA). Henry’s res­ig­na­tion fol­lowed rev­e­la­tions that more than $60 mil­lion was spent on fur­ni­ture for the NWA’s offices. This was in addi­tion to a $102-mil­lion refur­bish­ing project that sparked con­tro­ver­sy when it was revealed in the audi­tor general’s spe­cial report on the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme.

SEPTEMBER 2013: Richard Azan, junior min­is­ter in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, resigned in September 2013 under pub­lic pres­sure over his role in the improp­er con­struc­tion of shops on land owned by the Clarendon Parish Council. Within two months, he was rein­stat­ed by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller after the direc­tor of pub­lic pros­e­cu­tions announced that no crim­i­nal charges would be laid.

JULY 2018: Science, Energy and Technology Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley resigned in the wake of scan­dals that erupt­ed at state-run enti­ties Petrojam and the National Energy Solutions Limited that fell under his portfolio.

MARCH 2019: Minister of Education, Youth and Information Ruel Reid was forced to resign over alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion and mis­use of pub­lic funds involv­ing a num­ber of insti­tu­tions tied to the min­istry. That inves­ti­ga­tion is ongoing.

Facts do not lie sim­ply because some peo­ple would pre­tend that facts do not mean anything.