ANDREW HOLNESS, Opposition Leader yet to answer questions over purchase of St Andrew property.... Holness needs to answer questions, says Phillips

BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, February 14, 2016    

The verbal wound that has affected the body of Opposition Leader Andrew Holness continues to bleed as the senior politician has still not responded to questions surrounding the purchase of land on which he is building a mansion in Beverly Hills, St Andrew.

Calls have been made by the governing People’s National Party (PNP) for full disclosure in a transaction which involved Holness, but the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader has not yet budged, although his critics believe that there are clear questions for him to answer.

One of the questions being asked pertains to an application for a registered title from the Office of Titles in July 2011. Documents obtained by the Jamaica Observer revealed that the initial application for the title was returned to him, as the Titles Office sought additional information to allow for processing.

Among the reasons given for the documents return were

 (1) to “state the occasion on which Andrew M Holness signed the transfer

(2) ”to print the transferor’s first name in the signing clause; and

(3) “to initial all amendments.”

The office asked Holness to correct and relodge his documents, which was later done.

However, the queer revelation that the land was purchased through a St Lucia-based company named ADMAT Incorporated, which listed Holness as a director, opened the door to greater scrutiny. The puzzling disclosure of a line on the application for the title carried the words “signed while on a visit to Jamaica”, although at the time he was the minister of education and lived in his homeland.

The documents bear a signature that is consistent with signatures of the Opposition leader on other documents that he had signed.

The Titles Office document states the purchase price as US$300,000 (or about J$25.8 million at the time).

Holness would later become prime minister, replacing Bruce Golding who resigned in October 2011. However, having served just over two months in the highest political seat of the land, Holness’ party lost the General Election to the Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP. more