Former Lucea Mayor Now Under Criminal Probe After DPP Reverses Decision..

Contractor General Dirk Harrison yes­ter­day expressed regret that it took the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) eight months to be con­vinced that the pub­lic sec­tor pro­cure­ment reg­u­la­tions apply to the pur­chase of all goods, works, and ser­vices, irre­spec­tive of the value.

Harrison was respond­ing to DPP Paula Llewelyn’s rever­sal of her deci­sion that there was noth­ing crim­i­nal for which for­mer Lucea may­or Shernett Haughton could be charged in rela­tion to the issu­ing of con­tracts to rel­a­tives and friends.

Haughton will now be the sub­ject of a crim­i­nal investigation.

Llewellyn had orig­i­nal­ly dis­missal Harrison’s inter­pre­ta­tion of the pub­lic pro­cure­ment reg­u­la­tions, and his call for crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings against Haughton.

But yes­ter­day Llewellyn con­ced­ed that she was wrong in dis­miss­ing the con­trac­tor gen­er­al’s inter­pre­ta­tion of the reg­u­la­tions, based on his report on the charges of nepo­tism and crim­i­nal­i­ty against Haughton, who has resigned as may­or but remains as the People’s National Party coun­cil­lor for the Green Island Division of the Hanover Parish Council.

“While the con­trac­tor gen­er­al wel­comes this change of stance, albeit late in the day, his regret is that it took the insti­tu­tion of a court action, sub­se­quent con­sul­ta­tion with a Queen’s Counsel and the act­ing chief par­lia­men­tary coun­sel after the case was well under­way and the pas­sage of eight months, for the DPP to prop­er­ly advise her­self that in essence, the reg­u­la­tions which gov­ern pub­lic sec­tor pro­cure­ment are applic­a­ble to all pro­cure­ment of goods, works, ser­vices irre­spec­tive of the val­ue, and that Circular No. 16 does not exclude con­tracts below $500,000 from crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty,” Harrison said in a statement.

In a report tabled in the House of Representatives on March 24, Harrison had rec­om­mend­ed that Haughton relin­quish her posi­tion as coun­cil­lor, as well, on the basis of her uneth­i­cal behaviour.

The report accused her of nepo­tism and crim­i­nal offences in the Hanover Parish Council’s award of 22 con­tracts, with a cumu­la­tive val­ue of $3.7 mil­lion, to her rel­a­tives and affiliates.

In her response in April, Llewellyn dis­missed Harrison’s rec­om­men­da­tion that Haughton’s actions con­sti­tut­ed crim­i­nal offences, claim­ing that none of the con­tracts went over the $500,000 threshold.

Harrison not­ed that Llewellyn also made pub­lic state­ments in sev­er­al news­pa­per arti­cles sug­gest­ing that he had “very lit­tle chance of suc­ceed­ing” in con­vinc­ing her through the court, after he took the mat­ter to court.

“We will be ready to meet any and every pos­si­ble argu­ment that the OCG will posit…,” he said the DPP respond­ed in one arti­cle to his deci­sion to take the mat­ter to court.

But yes­ter­day, Llewellyn, in con­ced­ing that she was wrong, com­ment­ed that she is “only human”.

“I have indi­cat­ed that, based on the report (from the con­trac­tor gen­er­al) there is a pri­ma facie case in respect of a breach of the reg­u­la­tions. The police now have to go and col­lect the state­ments from the wit­ness­es,” she said.

Yesterday, Harrison said that DPP would also have to meet the cost of the court’s intervention.
Former Lucea may­or now under crim­i­nal probe after DPP revers­es decision