KSAMC administration criticised as ‘deceptive and dark’ by PNP’s Gordon
The current administration of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) has been labelled as “the most deceptive and the most dark” by Dennis Gordon, the councillor-candidate for the Maxfield Division in St Andrew East Central, representing the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).
Gordon made this assertion during Thursday night’s debate between representatives of the PNP and the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ahead of the local government election scheduled for February 26. He accused the administration of engaging in corrupt practices, particularly in the awarding of contracts.
Addressing Venesha Phillips, who previously represented the PNP in the Papine Division in the KSAMC but is now running on a JLP ticket, Gordon criticised her for her previous critiques of the management under the PNP.
“You sat with us [PNP in the KSAMC] and you were critical of how things were managed,” he told Phillips.
“For example, the Mayor’s personal assistant is now the procurement manager. We’ve not had consecutive meetings either of the accounts committee or the properties committee,” Gordon said. He pointed out that according to the law, the corporation’s budget should be made public but said “For five years we’ve not had one”.
Gordon also pointed to a damning report of the Integrity Commission that implicated the corporation’s building officers and remarked that “the most deceptive and the most dark administration is this one and I make no apologies for it”.
He further criticised the administration for its lack of transparency, citing the absence of audit reports and failure to share reports from the auditor general and the Integrity Commission. He described the administration’s self-investigation as a mockery.
“How dare you talk about transparency when you have no audit report, you have no internal audit report, you’ve not shared the damning report from the auditor general, neither have you shared the report from the Integrity Commission but you’re investigating yourself. I find it a mere mockery,” said Gordon.
