Contractor General Greg Christie

New information deemed to be suspicious, which was provided Tuesday by the board of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), has forced Contractor General Greg Christie to reopen his probe into the affairs of the state-owned bus company.

This time, Christie is interested in finding evidence which could lead him to make "formal referrals to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for criminal proceedings to be instituted against one or more of the company's directors and officers for perjury".

Already, one director, Bindley Sangster, who has taken a leave of absence as the acting managing director of the JUTC, is on tenterhooks following a recommendation by Christie that the DPP consider bringing criminal charges against him for an alleged breach of the Contractor General's Act.

And Sangster could be in for more trouble if Christie finds compelling evidence that could lead DPP Paula Llewellyn to drag him and possibly other members of the JUTC board to court to answer criminal charges.

The contention stems from the board's assertion that the Finance and Procurement committee of the JUTC met 10 times between November 7, 2007 and July 25, and not once, as Christie had stated in his report.

Under the Perjury Act, any person who wilfully makes contradictory and inconsistent statements shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both such imprisonment and fine.

Documents requested

According to the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), on July 30, 2008, Sangster was asked to provide a copy of the minutes of all JUTC Finance and Procurement Committee meetings which were held between August 1, 2007, and the present.

Sangster's response was: "One meeting of the (JUTC) Finance and Procurement Committee has been held since August 1, 2008. Copy of the minutes attached."

The OCG said that Sangster's assertion as to "since 1st August, 2008" clearly appears to be a typographical error. It should have read "1st August, 2007".

"This is incontrovertibly evidenced by the fact that (a) he was expressly asked to provide an answer in relation to a period which commenced on '1st August, 2007' and, (b) the 'Notes from Procurement Meeting' which were submitted by Mr Sangster to the OCG, in support of his declaration, clearly indicate that the sole Procurement Committee meeting to which he had alluded was convened on February 26, 2008," the OCG release read.

On Tuesday, a report from the JUTC board was tabled in Parliament, which stopped just short of accusing the contractor general of not being thorough enough.

In an apparent attack on Christie, the board said: "The minutes of that meeting make reference to the minutes of the previous Finance and Procurement Committee meeting and accordingly, the CG could have made himself aware of at least one other meeting."

As chairman of the Finance and Procurement Committee, Sangster had declared in the second quarterly report that the award of a contract to Simber Productions, a company in which the late Chairman Douglas Chambers was majority shareholder, had received the approval of the Procurement Committee.

Smith signed

But according to the board, Sangster, in the absence of Chambers, who was murdered on June 27, 2008, and the vice-president for finance, Wayne Smith, who quit the post, was asked to sign the report.

"Sangster signed the report as requested, accepting as accurate the statements contained therein that had been prepared by management," the board said. Christie has frowned upon this excuse.

"At all material times, Mr Sangster was the chairman of the JUTC's Procurement Committee and, therefore, had the wherewithal to know if the contract to Simber Productions Limited had in fact been approved by the company's procurement committee as the QCA report had falsely represented," the contractor general said.