(Jamaica Gleaner) A mole in the Ministry of Finance provided the United States Embassy in Kingston insider information on almost every move made by then Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies.
But this public servant did not appear to be motivated by a political bias, as he continued to provide the embassy with insider information after the Government changed and Audley Shaw assumed control of the country’s purse strings.
Diplomatic cables from the Kingston Embassy between 2005 and 2009 include several classified information from the mole, whose name is being withheld by The Sunday Gleaner.
In one cable dated March 2005, the mole told the Embassy that Davies handling of the “comfort letters” which had sparked a firestorm in Parliament raised questions about his managerial and leadership qualities.
The comfort letters had been issued by the finance ministry to financial institutions as an unofficial government guarantee on behalf of agencies not subject to Parliamentary review.
As the firestorm raged in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, the mole told the Embassy that it was unfortunate that civil servants in the Finance Ministry had to explain something they knew nothing about.
According to the mole, the grilling from the PAC had put so much pressure on one finance ministry employee that he became stressed out.
“This was complicated by the scramble to get additional information for the next sitting of the PAC,” the cable quoted the mole.
“(The mole) also reiterated the difficulty these off-book expenditures had on planning,” said the cable.
IMF too ‘bullish’
With that controversy hardly settled the International Monetary Fund issued a June Staff Report on Jamaica and expressed broad agreement with the economic policies being implemented by Davies.
But the mole told the embassy that the IMF might have been a little too “bullish” on the economy.
“(The mole) … suggested to embassy officials … that the IMF prognosis would have been strongly influenced by Davies’ recent attempts to control the deficit,” the cable said.
According to the cable: “When asked about the fund’s position on Air Jamaica, (the mole) told embassy officials that the (IMF) team might have been too soft on the Government of Jamaica’s handling of the national carrier which, in his estimation, (was) the single biggest threat to fiscal policy.”
The 2007 changing of the Government was not an end to the leaking of sensitive information from inside the ministry.
In a July 2009 cable, the Kingston embassy quoted the finance ministry informant as providing details on a trip to Washington by a government team seeking to complete a deal with the IMF.
“(The mole) told embassy officials that the Government of Jamaica did not make as much progress as it had intended in Washington, but said an IMF programme had to be in place within the quarter to stem the fiscal slide,” said the cable.
“(He) stated that after intense discussion of the difficult issue of public-sector downswing the IMF team moved closer to the government’s position that the wage-to-GDP ratio was not out of line with Jamaica’s competitors,” added the cable.
The mole also told the embassy when the IMF team would return to Jamaica to continue discussions on the country’s debt problem, which was a sticking point in the deal.
“(The mole) said the Government of Jamaica and the IMF have grave concerns about the country’s gargantuan debt stock and the attendant high interest rates. He said based on the discussions a solution must be found to this problem before an agreement can be reached,” the July 2009 cable said.
