Another call has been made fro Energy Minister, Phillip Paulwell to be removed from the Ministry in the wake of t he controversy surrounding the 381-megawatt project.
On Sunday, Attorney at Law Shirley Ann Eaton, said the latest misstep is among a long list of issues dogging the Minister’s portfolio.
“Unfortunately, Minister Paulwell seems to have been plagued with these continuous questions as to his decisions and whether he is not overly exuberant, but then, we are not young anymore….. so it raises the question , in that given that we are wiser, we should acknowledge when we have made serious errors and withdraw,” said Eaton, who was a guest on RJR’s weekly news review programme “That’s a Rap”.
Paulwell who has been at the centre of the controversy that engulfed the bidding process and the granting of a license to the Hong Kong based company, Energy World International (EWI), told Parliament on Tuesday that he would no longer have responsibility for the controversial project and the team will be headed by Dr. Vincent Lawrence, a civil and geotechnical engineer.
According to the Energy Minister, the Government has declared that Jamaicans can still expect significantly cheaper electricity rates by 2016, despite the Cabinet's revocation of the license he had granted to EWI last month.
Late last month, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) refused to help fund the energy project because of concerns with the procurement process.
In response, Pauwell said he believed the IDB’s position was a misunderstanding that would eventually be sorted out.
On another matter, Eaton came out in support of the recent stance taken by Contractor General Dirk Harrison.
Last week Harrison said he was not comfortable participating in a public function with Mayor of May Pen, Scean Barnswell, while he is before the court on charges of trying to mislead the Office of the Contractor General during an investigation.
“I am so sick and tired of our inability to see perceived or real conflicts of interest. The Contractor General is correct , and I think we have to become sensitive to these issues. we have no notion of conflicts of interests or perceived conflicts of interests,” she said.
Fellow Attorney, Clive Munroe Jnr, who was also a guest on the programme, supported her view. He said the organisers of the event should shoulder some of the blame for putting the Contractor General in an uncomfortable position.
“If you come on the day and you find a problem like this, obviously it is going to be disconcerting, the real truth is that if you have a situation like this, you have to plan it from before…” he said.
According to reports, the Contractor General ,instigated a move for Barnswell to leave a meeting they were both attending in May Pen, in the central parish of Clarendon, on the grounds that he (the Contractor General) was not comfortable with the Mayor’s presence.
Barnswell is before the courts on a charge of attempting to mislead the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) in relation to an investigation into the alleged illegal construction of shops at the Spalding Market in North West Clarendon.
However in a subsequent news release, the OCG denied that Harrison had asked that Barnswell leave the meeting.
The release said the Contractor General had pointed out to host of the function, Custos of Clarendon William Shagoury, the legal implications of "contact" between "witnesses" and "accused" in criminal matters.
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