JAMAICA: BRAZEN MURDER OF TRANSIT COMPANY OFFICIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINGSTON 000596


STATE FOR WHA/CAR (KHARNE)
WHA/EPSC (VDEPIRRO) (MROONEY)
TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/04/2018
TAGS: ECON PREL KCOR KCRM ETRN SOCI ASEC ELAB XL JM
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: BRAZEN MURDER OF TRANSIT COMPANY OFFICIAL
BATTLING CORRUPTION

REF: A. KINGSTON 571

B. 07 KINGSTON 1681

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission James Heg for reasons 1.4 b and d

Summary
--------------

1. (C) Douglas Chambers, chairman of the Jamaican Urban
Transit Company (JUTC),was brazenly assassinated on June 28.
A respected accountant and partner at the auditing firm
Chambers, Henry and Partners, Chambers had taken on the
daunting job of restructuring the corrupt and inefficient
JUTC last October for a salary of USD 1. Despite previous
threats against him, he had refused personal security offered
by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ). In a Parliamentary
speech on July 1, Minister of Transportation Mike Henry
praised Chambers' efforts to reform JUTC and described the
corruption and incompetence which has led to losses of more
than USD 2 million per month. It is too early to tell if the
brazen murder will have a chilling effect on other
anti-corruption efforts currently being undertaken by the
Jamaican Labour Party (JLP)-led government (reftels).

Corruption in JUTC
--------------


2. (C) Chambers was shot fifteen times by three gunmen as he
stepped outside from a meeting at the JUTC main offices to
smoke a cigarette. Rumors are circulating that the murder
was carried out by Spanish Town's violent Klansman gang
(known to support the opposition People's National Party
(PNP)). Initial press reports in the Observer newspaper said
one of shooters may have had a job at JUTC that was soon to
be made redundant. Although accroding to prefessor Treveor
Munroe former PNP Member of Parliament and friend of Minister
of National Security Trevor MacMillan, the "redundancy excuse
on the shootings is a red herring." In his opinion, it was
Chambers' investigation into the fraud in the JUTC procurment
section that led to his death. Munroe feels very strongly
that this killing was meant to senda message to any
JLP-supporter involviend in ferreting out corrtun PNP
practices. Chambers had recommend that 481 jobs be cut.
Sixty-five drivers were being given an opportunity to be
retrained; if they did not accept the offer, they too would
lose their jobs.


3. (C) Chambers recently completed a report on corruption and
mismanagement that at the JUTC. Henry told Parliament that
abuses included: the unauthorized sale of discounted student
tickets to those who were not eligible; abuse of sick leave
and overtime (employees call in sick, a fellow employee would
be tasked with overtime, and the two employees would split
the additional overtime funds); the outright theft of bus
fares, estimated at USD 400,000 per month; failure to repair
broken vehicles; lack of transparency in the purchase of
fuel, the operation of unofficial buses, and a bloated work
force that included 10 workers per bus. Henry noted that the
international industry standard is 4.5 workers per bus. He
said losses were more than USD 2 million per month, but
Chambers' efforts had helped to stem the losses by as much as
USD 1 million in recent months. The number of staff is to be
reduced to 5 workers per bus. Henry will be in charge of
operations at JUTC until a replacement is found.


4. (C) In a response to Henry's statement in Parliament, PNP
Member of Parliament Peter Phillips asked if Chambers had
taken advantage of state security services. Henry responded
that Chambers had been offered security services, but had
declined them. Chambers had been scheduled to appear on June
30 to give members of the GOJ a full financial report on the
JUTC and to discuss the future of funding needs for the
transit company. Phillips asked if Henry knew the new
subsidy figure that would be provided to the JUTC. (Note:
this appeared to many in the audience to be a rather callous
comment by Phillips, since the murder of Chambers just two
days before clearly had been a set back for evaluating
operations at JUTC).

Chilling Effect on Anti-Corruption Efforts?
--------------


5. (C) Econoff spoke with Dennis Chung, who also sits on the
JUTC board, on July 1. Chung said other members of the JUTC
board has been threatened, including himself. Chung now
carries a firearm and has hired a personal bodyguard to
travel with him. Chung said the murder of Chambers was
senseless because the reforms and staff reductions would
continue at JUTC. Chambers had been scheduled to relinquish
the JUTC chairmanship by October. Chung said Chambers had
been well respected in Jamaica, and his murder is a serious
cause for concern among others trying to root out corruption.
On July 2 Lisa Palmer, Deputy Director of Public Prosecution
(DPP),told Econoff that the murder of Chambers would not
have a chilling effect on the GOJ's anticorruption efforts.
She said the tragic murder of Chambers shows how serious the
threat of corruption is to Jamaica,s future. In contrast,
Police Commissioner Hadley Lewin state that the police were
treating this as a simple murder and the motive was the
individual's loss of a job at JUTC. Leslie Green, the
Assistant Commissioner of Police believes the assasisnation
was direct retaliation by the Klansman gang who had a number
of members employed at JUTC that are being fired in the
downsizing. Green said the murder was thoroughly
investigated and arrests should be made soon.


6. (C) COMMENT: The GOJ has embarked on major reform in the
JUTC, Air Jamaica, Customs and the police force. The
government is making headway, but the death of Chambers could
weaken the GOJ's ability to attract top quality applicants to
what are becoming increasingly risky positions. The murder
has also shaken the already wavering confidence of ordinary
Jamaicans. Callers to radio talk shows this week have been
using terms like "failed system" to describe the inability of
Jamaica,s political process to curb crime and violence. In
the July 3 Observer newspaper, prominent columnist Mark
Wignall apportions blame for the Chambers killing between the
"the 18-year old kleptocracy of the last PNP administration"
and the "wishy-washy leadership of Bruce Golding, which as
been pussy footing with weeding out the termites" in the
system. Time is indeed growing short for this government to
show some results on security.

JOHNSON