Opposition Leader Mark Golding has joined shadow spokesman on finance Julian Robinson in demanding the resignation of the board of the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ), in the wake of revelations that the purchase of more than $400 million worth of equity in start-up First Rock Capital Holdings breached the state entity’s investment policies.

Golding, who is also president of the People’s National Party (PNP), while addressing the party’s NEC on Sunday (July 25), declared that a crisis in governance was continuing with members of the Andrew Holness Administration appearing to have failed to learn from anti-corruption training it claimed to have received from the Integrity Commission.

READ: Mark Golding | Where Jamaica finds itself today

“The first term of the Andrew Holness-led JLP Government was the most corrupt political administration in the history of Jamaica, with scandal after scandal, billions of dollars of public funds not accounted for, two Cabinet ministers forced to resign, one of them now before the criminal courts for corruption-related charges, and several public boards having to be shut down,” Golding declared.

“We have heard that, at the beginning of their second term, the Cabinet went through anti-corruption training administered by the Integrity Commission. However, it seems that some of the members were asleep during the training.

“The Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) made two massive unlawful investments in a start-up business, in breach of the regulations governing public bodies and in breach of the AAJ’s own investment policy.”

Golding added: “The current chairman herself invested in the same start-up business, and was appointed to its board shortly thereafter, demonstrating clear conflict of interest. Now the AAJ is trying to sell the investment in the wake of this public scandal.”

The AAJ chairman, Fay Hutchinson, had been deputy chair at the time of the first purchase of US$1 million in equity in First Rock in February 2019. The purchase was evenly split between the AAJ and it subsidiary Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA).

RESIGNED FROM FIRST ROCK BOARD IN MARCH 2021

Hutchinson would in March 2020 be appointed to the board of First Rock, shortly after the January 2020 investment that brought the AAJ’s and NMIA’s investment in First Rock to US$3 million, or J$443 million. She would be appointed chairman of the AAJ after the September 2020 general election, and resigned from First Rock’s board in March 2021.

As the controversy erupted, both Hutchinson and the transport ministry have defended the transactions with the AAJ chairman declaring that no personal benefit was derived and the ministry indicating that it was satisfied there was no conflict of interest involved.

Last week, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke told Parliament the AAJ’s initial investment in First Rock did not receive his ministry’s approval, in contravention of the Public Bodies and Accountability Act which requires permission from the finance ministry before investing in private companies not listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

First Rock was not listed on the JSE until March 2020.

In addition, the AAJ’s internal policies require that it only invest in blue chip companies with a history of performance, and First Rock did not begin operations until a month after the state agencies’ initial investment.

Said Golding yesterday: “The minister responsible for transport [Robert Montague] has remained silent in the face of this fiasco affecting a large public body within his portfolio. Our spokesperson for finance, Julian Robinson, has called for the resignation of the AAJ Board in the face of this major violation of good public sector governance. I reiterate that call today. Scarce public resources cannot be misapplied in this way, with no-one held accountable.

“The AAJ Board must go.”

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