The Jamaican Prime Minister has been on record as saying ” I give my ministers the job and I expect them to do their jobs. I do not speak for the ministers, instead I allow them to do that themselves”.
We can kick him and beat him as much as we want but Phillip Paulwell is not alone on this one, in fact I will go on record to suggest that Phillip Paulwell has the full backing of the following persons in the PNP cabinet.
Dr Omar Davis
Portia Simpson Miller
Robert Pickersgill.
Phillip Paulwell’s job, supported by the above persons is to get EWI to execute the project regardless of the many issues surrounding the company, because the Portia Simpson Miller cabinet was given assurance from China, that they would provide financial support to the project if and only if the China controlled Hong Kong based company got the contract for the power plant. ( China controls Hong Kong)
Why is this so ?
I believe the power plant project is tied to the Goat Island project and would provide the chinese with a cheap source of power to allow the facility to function in a cost effective manner. The Chinese were was not about to allow themselves to become dependent on some American based company for power and would rather build a plant themselves or invest in one such plant, that had Chinese connections.
This would have all been explained to the Prime Minister, who wants not only to be able to say, she was able to bring $x billions dollars of investment to the country, but her government was able to cut electricity prices by 30% in just 4 yrs, which was something the former JLP was not able to do in their 4 yrs. This would provide the basis for a thumping of the JLP in the 2016 elections hence the mad rush by Phillip Paulwell , to get concrete in the ground.
What she did not expect however were some of the glaring missteps my her energy minister along the way in his zeal to ensure this happened.
Dr Omar Davis would have been the main man in Jamaica for the Goat Island development, so he too would have had a vested interest in Paulwell being able to deliver the power project to EWI and is so doing help Dr Davis out. Dr Davis too like many of us does not necessarily want a coal fired plant on Goat Island but is in no position to strongly negotiate with China as we desperately need the US $1.5B investment in Jamaica.
All the above is power play, with very powerful members of the cabinet all lined up on one side and others on the other, but there is one clear strategy, the PNP must do enough to win the next election and the best way to achieve that is to get these chinese funded projects in the ground.
The one issue is Phillip Paulwell bungled the process along the way, but there is no turning back at this stage.
The Prime Minister at this stage cannot claim ignorance, so what must happen in very short order, is to announce that CHEC will become a part of the process thus deflating all those who have been asking for the head of the Energy Minister.
When people are drunk for power, bad things do happen, but I must hand it to the PNP, they are absolute masters at their craft and the JLP has been caught napping once again as they follow the noisy crowd, but is not paying attention to the slick moves that are being made by the PNP.
If you read my previous post I have been consistent on this same view from October 2013.
Warren's Blog 
If this is true then the whole cabinet should resign and call new elections. The machinations involve to just get CHEC through the backdoor of this project is reprehensible and a deliberate attempt to side step the OCG and established procedures.
The PNP are slick as you can get and their analyst are in every nook and cranny of Jamaica, offering false misinformation to the public.
They are good at mis-direction
Maybe I’m missing something here. Are you suggesting that the 360 MW project will be constructed in such a fashion, where it will be the sole source of electricity for the Goat Island Project? That whatever power is “leftover” will be supplied to the JPS national grid? Are you further intimating that the 360 MW project is first and foremost being driven by the Goat Island Project and was only conceived with this single project in mind?
Dude, what are you smoking? Whatever it is, it has to be some powerful shit or you are coming off something.
Keep reading maybe you will understand soon. Open up your mind and read this in conjunction with other post I have written on this. You are way off target so far
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from LIME.
So why didn’t EWI do directly to the Chinese for Project Financing in the first place? Even better, why not have them front the Performance Bond and avoid all the side show?
Stay tune Wayne , you will learn about real political manuovering in due course.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from LIME.
I must say thanks to Jay for being on top of this from the word GO. I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, but I always give credit when due. Now, let me fully state, I don’t care how this plant is built because as far as I am concerned, we (jamaica) have not put up a dime to complete this project so whatever the machinations that are involved in completing the project, as long as there was no money passing hands(corruption), I am good.
MY pov comes from the standpoint that we offered tender & no recognized multi-nationals took up the bit because of our history of bungling by both political parties, our weirdly new but antiquated regulatory setup and crazy contract rules. So we got who we got. EWI being parachuted in at the last minute does not even raise my eyebrow because they still had to be vetted by OUR through their international consultant Mott, and they were only chosen because the first parties were unable to deliver the basic deposit. I understand the cry for following the rules but our ass is on the line so if the rules are bent, so be it. For us to bungle a third RFP would have lent a death knell over this farce, and we the people would have suffered the most. Lastly, in my opinion, we Jamaicans in an effort to prevent corruption, have now fully completed the job of tying ourselves in so many knots that it is practically impossible to do a damn thing business wise concerning any government service without paying off the civil servants. Its absolutely hilarious to me that we keep on suggesting that its the MP’s that are corrupt when everyone knows that its our civil servants that are the real source of corruption in Jamaica.Customs, JCF, Birth papers, Passport, Drivers license, taxes, land title, probate court, you name it. TO do business with any one of these government services usually involves paying people off. I would expect that the readers of this blog would know the distinction between PNP/JLP and civil service which is embedded whomever is in charge and is backed up by the union. I sincerely believe if we were not this stupidly partisan, we would have cleaned up this pigsty a long time ago. BUt therein lies our biggest problem; because we are wholly emotional caricatures, we never seem to be able to analyse problems properly, always focusing on the minor and not the major, leading to the inevitable 2 week wonder instead of sustained problem solving. This energy project is evidence of which i speak of, as we focus on the minor; rules, rather than the major; project completion. Jay however has focussed on both, so while I dismiss the former as inanity, I welcome the latter focus of project delivery!
I happen to agree with much of what you had to say. The below quote is right on the money. Our continued obsession with politicians, when it is the civil servants who are robbing us blind. The way I see it, the entire population is corrupt and the things that affect us daily have very little to do with politicians. When one of my tenants refuse to pay their rent for months, leaves owing hundreds of thousands or destroy the place during the process, that is what piss me off royally. We won’t even talk about those individuals who continue to evade paying a single dime in personal income taxes, while living the high life…there are many.
“It’s absolutely hilarious to me that we keep on suggesting that its the MP’s that are corrupt when everyone knows that its our civil servants that are the real source of corruption in Jamaica. Customs, JCF, Birth papers, Passport, Drivers license, taxes, land title, probate court, you name it.”