CHRISTOPHER “DUDUS” COKE is not the average Jamaican.The tentacles of his power and influence stretch across Jamaica and in to the upper echelons of the current government. The community Coke controls is a notorious stronghold of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and is Prime Minister Golding’s constituency, while his defence attorney Senator Tom Tavares-Finson is a Member of Parliament.According to the Jamaican newspaper the Sunday Herald, since the JLP took over central and local government administrations, the company Incomparable Enterprise Limited, in which Coke is alleged to be a shareholder, has been awarded over JAM$100 million (BDS$2 180 710) in state contracts, excluding the latest contract on Washington Boulevard. Records from the Kingston & St Andrew Corporation and the Office of the Contractor General show that the contracts were awarded after the ruling JLP took over the parish council in 2003, and August 2009.Less than a year after assuming power, the government awarded the company a number of lucrative contracts, which, by August last year, amounted to about JA$71 754 897 (BDS$1 564 760) in contracts endorsed by the National Contracts Commission. (SP)
