KINGSTON, (Reuters) – A Jamaican government official stepped down yesterday after being implicated in a bribery scandal involving British bridge-building firm Mabey & Johnson, but he vowed to “clear my name.”
Joseph Hibbert, Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s junior minister of Transport and Works, resigned effective immediately after being linked to involvement with Mabey & Johnson and alleged corrupt business practices in the Caribbean nation.
“This resignation will allow me the time and freedom to clear my name and my integrity,” Hibbert said in a statement.
The firm, which publicly admitted wrongdoing last week, has been charged in Britain with trying to influence decision-makers such as Hibbert for contracts in both Jamaica and Ghana between 1993 and 2001.
In Britain’s first-ever prosecution of a company for overseas corruption, Mabey & Johnson also has been charged with alleged breaches of U.N. sanctions by applying for contracts under the Iraq oil-for-food program in 2001 and 2002.
Golding’s office said in a statement that the prime minister accepted Hibbert’s resignation.
“In view of the allegations of bribery of Jamaican Government officials made in the UK courts by the British firm Mabey and Johnson Limited in which I am implicated, I have today decided to submit my resignation as Minister of State in the Ministry of Transport and Works to the Honourable Prime Minister,” Hibbert said in the statement.
… de “best expert advice” is a phrase that i have always linked to an abuse of the PEOPLES money !…..
it is not requisite to have microscopic monitoring to see where the syphoning is taking place ! which is why ,, the now AMB. to brazil ,, is who we have there in that capacity ! if this PPP led govt think ,, they r goin to be let off ,, the way de pnc was ,, when they were kicked out ,, then ,, they will be given the full force by the tax payers ! on whose back de burden ,, for the past ,, is now the weight of the future while more is being added !
Ramsammy should take note.
This was an honorably thing to do by this minister, but it’s a shame his guyanese counterparts don’t feel they should resign when their names comes up in scandals.
man yuh meck meh laugh suh haad now….de man guilty like sin..hehehehehehehe….ya tink dem stupid..dem know why dem does go quietly into de evenin sunset suh de spotlite would be off dem and in time every ting forgotten….come on AMEN-RA yuh know betta dan dat how dis ting does wok…ehehehehehe
amen ,,, i am asking u this merely out of my own convictions relative to the past which dictates our future in guiding us not to repeat that which was evil but to constanly be cognisant of the truth that is in our hearts ,, and is the equation of the dynamics of good that must come from evil ! so here is my question to u….
burnham ,,, green ,, de police ,, de army ,, and many others from de pnc who u and i know ,, who were not only in “scandals” but was known to be the perpetrators of what constituted the scandals in GUYANA ,, did u at anytime while u were part and parcel of the ignominous affairs of de illegal circus ,,advise them to resign like ure sayin here ,, for them to resign ????????????????????????????????????????
Mt at that time i was a teenager when those names you mentioned was in office, now i’m a grown man and i think i have a right to speak up now, and at those times i wasn’t interested in politics, is my answer fair enough for you.
There are too much bravados in the Guyana Government, so they will continue like business as usual. That is professionalism at its best and that is the difference between Guyana and the rest of the world. They do not just preach it they practice it.