By DURRANT PATE
Senior Staff Reporter

Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s Sandals Ultra All-Inclusive Resort recieved over $20 million in discretionary waivers for promotional items, DVDs, magazines, brochures and flyers according to information from the finance ministry.

Leading hotelier Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s company Sandals Ultra all-inclusive and three car rental companies benefited from most of the over half a billion dollars in non-charitable waivers last year.

Information from the Ministry of Finance revealed that Island Car Rentals received $166,009.180, Liberty Car Rentals Limited over $50 million, Bargain Rent-A- Car $41,630,831 and Sandals Ultra All-Inclusive Resort over $20 million for promotional items, DVDs, magazines, brochures and flyers.

Information from the Finance Ministry shows that it approved over $1.72 billion in discretionary waivers for the period December 1—31, 2009 with the lion’s share of $1.15 billion going to the charitable organization, Food For The Poor.

News of the waivers comes in the midst of the Government’s solemn promise to reduce discretionary waivers, which is open to inequity, abuse and corruption.

In total $1.2 billion in waivers were approved to charitable organizations and the remainder of just over $525 million were approved for non-charitable organizations with Island Car getting $166 million in waiver for motor vehicles. Sandals was given two waivers amounting to $20 million.  The resort got a waiver of $19.44 million for promotional items such as DVDs, magazines, brochures and flyers and $564,821 for the importation of toys, school supplies, musical instruments, games etc.

Car companies

Several rent-a-car companies such as Liberty Car Rentals, Bargain Rent-A-Car and Apex Car Rentals Limited were also awarded multi-million dollar waivers.

Liberty’s waiver of $50 million relate to the importation of Toyota Corolla, Yaris, Camry and Suzuki Vitara, while Bargain’s waiver of $41.63 million was for the importation of Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Rav 4 vehicles.

Apex benefited from a waiver amounting to $11.57 for the importation of Toyota Corollas and Fortuner vehicles.  Smaller waivers of under $3.5 million were granted to other car rental companies.

Among the beneficiary car rental companies were Cole’s Car Rental Limited ($3.88 million), One of A Kind Car Rentals ($2 million), Happy World Bike and Car Rental ($1.98 million), Cosmo Car Rentals ($1.75 million) and Metro Car Rentals ($1.75 million), Pat’s Taxi Service and Car Rentals ($1.13 million).

Waivers on several vehicles were granted to several individuals such as Hugo Morgan, who was awarded a waiver of $2.86 million on a 2005 30-seater Hino Coaster; Archibald McIntyre received a waiver of $4 million on a 2009 Toyota Coaster, while Jermaine Smith was awarded a waiver of $1.93 million on a 16-seater Toyota Hiace bus.

Prominent companies

Israetech Limited was the beneficiary of a waiver amounting to $36.57 million for importing solar water heaters and their components.

Several prominent companies were featured on the December 2009 waiver list.  Seprod through its subsidiary, Golden Grove Sugar Company was the beneficiary of $60.24 million for the importation of used Caterpillar Backhoe, trucks, etc. while the parent company received another waiver of $6.44 million for items for retooling under its modernization programme.

Pepsi Cola Jamaica’s waiver for $7.55 million was done under the Modernization of Industry Programme as well as the waiver of $2.62 million to National Rums of Jamaica Limited.

Captain’s Bakery and Juici Beef Limited got waivers of just over $2 million and $1.48 million respectively for items under the Modernization of Industry Programme, while Mother’s Enterprise got a waiver of $1.26 million on 110,000 lbs of beef trimmings.

Jamaica Broilers received two waivers, which cumulatively amounted to $1.6 million for the importation of corrugated boxes.  Eyebrows are already being raised regarding the waiver of $254,000 on a 2000 Mercedes Benz sports utility vehicle to Robert Kennedy.

PAYE waivers

The list showed that two politicians, one of them unnamed, got waivers.  The named politician was Dr. Patrick Harris, the Member of Parliament for North Trelawny, who got waivers of $55,000 on the importation of 11 boxes consisting of filing cabinets, chairs and desks, while a councilor from the Portmore Municipal Council was the recipient of a waiver of $10,000 on the importation of two barrels of clothes, food, toys and sweets.

Nineteen companies got Pay as You Earn (PAYE) waivers amounting to just over $3 million.  They include Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, Covenant Christian Academy, Ocho Rios High and Atlanta Coast Trading Company.

The PAYE waiver recipients also included IGL Limited, Strobe Communications, Jamaica Family Planning Association, the Competitiveness Company, Mair Trans International Logistics Limited, Jam Row Trading Company and Caribbean Agricultural Research & Development Institute.