FOR FOURTEEN years, Dr Omar Davies controlled the country's purse strings with a swagger that made people love him or hate him; but revelations over the past two months have led to a dramatic rise in the latter group.

After a contrived by-election in which he was elected member of parliament for the People's National Party's (PNP) safe seat of South St Andrew, Davies was ushered into the Ministry of Finance in December 1993 to replace Hugh Small.

From day one, Davies commanded the country's financial operations with a confidence that many of his detractors labelled arrogance.

That confidence, or arrogance, was based on a solid academic foundation. He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and Northwestern University in the United States. He received a doctorate in economics at the latter. The former finance minister was also an assistant professor at the ivy-league institution, Stanford University, in California.

older posts

In addition, Davies served as a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies, and was director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

Throughout his tenure as finance minister, Davies attracted an almost equal number of admirers and detractors.

However, even his staunch critics struggled to challenge claims that he was a man of integrity after he avoided the many allegations of corruption that were levelled at other members of the PNP over the 18 years that it held on to state power.

While some detractors labelled his handling of the country's finances as incompetent, they could only point to his now infamous "run wid it" speech when they wanted to question his integrity.

clear danger signs

That speech came in the aftermath of the 2002 general election when Davies implied that despite clear danger signs, some government spending had been done with an eye on another electoral victory for the PNP.

But in recent weeks, some of the luster has started to leave the man who earned the confidence, if not admiration, of many in the financial sector locally and internationally.

First came the contractor general's claim that "Dr Davies had unlawfully and improperly intervened in the sale of the London Heathrow slots, and that the process of evaluation, selection and approval of the Virgin Atlantic proposal lacked merit, transparency, fairness and impartiality".

It was further claimed that "Davies made a false statement to mislead, or attempted to mislead a contractor general, contrary to Section 29 (a) of the Contractor General Act".

That fire blazed hotter for Davies when the director of public prosecutions agreed with the findings of the contractor general and sent the matter to the police for further investigation.

Davies has argued that any incorrect statement he made to the contractor general would be a genuine mistake as his files had been left at his former office and he was going from memory.

multimillion-dollar contract

And even as the public digested that development, Davies again found himself in the spotlight last week when Prime Minister Bruce Golding told the country about the multimillion-dollar contract given to former central bank Governor Derick Latibeaudiere.

"It was a strange contract, the likes of which has not up to now been found anywhere else," Golding declared while pointing to the contract that had been signed by Davies.

"The former governor is not to be blamed for the absurdly generous and open-ended contractual terms that he enjoyed. He was the beneficiary. That blame must be laid squarely at the feet of the former government and the former minister of finance, in particular, who authorised and signed the contract," added Golding as he claimed that it was significant that there was no record that the contract had been approved by the Cabinet.

In his defence, Davies accepted that while the contract might have been excessive, it was standard, and so had not needed the approval of the Cabinet.

Davies has also received public backing from his party, which claimed the former finance minister did no wrong.

But this has not stopped the scathing criticisms, and Dr Omar Davies is now among The Sunday Gleaner's People Under Pressure.

The National Democratic Movement (NDM) and the Jamaica Labour Party's young professionals group, Generation 2000 (G2K), have turned up the heat on Opposition Spokesman on Finance Dr Omar Davies.

The NDM has called on Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller to remove Davies as the party's spokesman on finance and as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

According to the NDM, Davies should not remain in politics based on several issues, including his incompetence.

In the meantime, G2K argues that Davies' judgement, competence and stewardship as a public official have been called into question once again.

"It is most unfortunate that an individual who had repeatedly demonstrated reckless behaviour as finance minister could be vested with the awesome responsibility of presiding over a committee as sensitive as the PAC in the first place," charged G2K.