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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>PM admits: 'I met with Trafigura reps'</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Observer Reporter
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>SIMPSON MILLER. exchanged pleasantries with Trafigura representatives </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday admitted that she had met in August this year with two representatives of Trafigura, the Dutch oil and commodities trader at the centre of a scandal that has already brought down one government minister.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But Simpson Miller insisted that the meeting was a courtesy call on her as the prime minister and no representatives of her ruling People's National Party (PNP) were present.
"The prime minister and the Trafigura representatives exchanged pleasantries and no business was conducted," said press secretary Lincoln Robinson through whom Simpson Miller spoke to the Observer last night.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Robinson said the meeting lasted between 25 and 30 minutes, during which the Trafigura officials made much of the fact that she was Jamaica's first woman prime minister.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Trafigura Beheer, which resells crude oil which Jamaica buys from Nigeria on the international market and has a contract with the state-run Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, paid $31 million to an account named CCOC which the PNP uses for campaign purposes.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The firm maintains that it gave no money to the ruling People's National Party, and that the money lodged to the CCOC account at FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) was in pursuance of an alleged commercial arrangement.
That account at FCIB - from which the information was leaked to Golding - was linked to PNP general secretary Colin Campbell, forcing his resignation as information and development minister, as well as from his party post.<P class=StoryText align=justify>With the PNP's image taking a walloping, Simpson Miller also instructed that the $31-million be returned to Trafigura.
Observer sources said the decision taken at last weekend's marathon meeting that decided Campbell's fate, was based on the view that Trafigura could not publicly admit that it had given funds to a political party, given the protocols under which it operates in the European Union.<P class=StoryText align=justify>On the other hand, the PNP cannot admit that the $31 million was based on a commercial arrangement, as that would suggest it had diverted state funds to the party, the well-placed source said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Robinson was unable to say whether the prime minister, wearing her party hat as president, had met on any other occasions with the Trafigura representatives.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"I would not have known about such a meeting with the PNP," he said. "If she met with the Trafigura people along with other PNP officers, I do not know of it."
Asked to describe the mood of the embattled prime minister, Robinson said she had been "thoughtfully grappling with putting all the bits and pieces together".</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=450 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>PM admits: 'I met with Trafigura reps'</SPAN><SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Observer Reporter
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=221 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>SIMPSON MILLER. exchanged pleasantries with Trafigura representatives </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday admitted that she had met in August this year with two representatives of Trafigura, the Dutch oil and commodities trader at the centre of a scandal that has already brought down one government minister.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But Simpson Miller insisted that the meeting was a courtesy call on her as the prime minister and no representatives of her ruling People's National Party (PNP) were present."The prime minister and the Trafigura representatives exchanged pleasantries and no business was conducted," said press secretary Lincoln Robinson through whom Simpson Miller spoke to the Observer last night.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Robinson said the meeting lasted between 25 and 30 minutes, during which the Trafigura officials made much of the fact that she was Jamaica's first woman prime minister.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Trafigura Beheer, which resells crude oil which Jamaica buys from Nigeria on the international market and has a contract with the state-run Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, paid $31 million to an account named CCOC which the PNP uses for campaign purposes.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The firm maintains that it gave no money to the ruling People's National Party, and that the money lodged to the CCOC account at FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) was in pursuance of an alleged commercial arrangement.
That account at FCIB - from which the information was leaked to Golding - was linked to PNP general secretary Colin Campbell, forcing his resignation as information and development minister, as well as from his party post.<P class=StoryText align=justify>With the PNP's image taking a walloping, Simpson Miller also instructed that the $31-million be returned to Trafigura.
Observer sources said the decision taken at last weekend's marathon meeting that decided Campbell's fate, was based on the view that Trafigura could not publicly admit that it had given funds to a political party, given the protocols under which it operates in the European Union.<P class=StoryText align=justify>On the other hand, the PNP cannot admit that the $31 million was based on a commercial arrangement, as that would suggest it had diverted state funds to the party, the well-placed source said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Robinson was unable to say whether the prime minister, wearing her party hat as president, had met on any other occasions with the Trafigura representatives.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"I would not have known about such a meeting with the PNP," he said. "If she met with the Trafigura people along with other PNP officers, I do not know of it."
Asked to describe the mood of the embattled prime minister, Robinson said she had been "thoughtfully grappling with putting all the bits and pieces together".</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>