Is Gassan Azan the Best Choice?

When the JLP came out with their manifesto earlier this year I commented to a friend of mine that if the JLP achieves 60% of their plans, they would be in power for the next twenty years. Even though they have not given enough concrete evidence of how the objectives would be funded, it is still a good strategic document that can have a very positive impact on the Jamaica society if implemented.

Of particular importance to me is the first part that deals with governance. It is important because I fervently believe that good leadership can inspire ordinary people to achieve extra-ordinary results. And God knows, Jamaica needs a good dose of these results.

Part of the good governance package (there are 23 items) as outlined in the manifesto deals with the appointment of public officials. It states that there will be a requirement that “appointment to sensitive posts that are critical to the delivery of good governance be approved by a two-thirds majority in each house of parliament thereby requiring consensus between the government and the opposition.”

It went on to list the public officials as Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal, Director of Public Prosecution, Public Defender, Contractor General, Judicial Services Commission, Public Services Commission, Police Services Commission and the Governor of the Bank of Jamaica. It further stated that they “will require appointments to ambassadorial posts and statutory boards be subject to scrutiny and approval by parliament.”

I am going to submit that the reason for this kind of approach by the visionary Bruce Golding, is not only to gain consensus in parliament, but also to ensure that the best person is given the job, if the country is to move forward. Not the friend of the minister, not the biggest political contributor, not the loudest political supporter but the best person!

In the United States these appointments are recommended by the Whitehouse and is then approved by the congress after much questioning and debate. These sessions allow the congress to dig deep into the life of the prospects to make sure that they are squeaky clean and possess the required knowledge and experience to carry out their duties.

In Jamaica things are done differently and so the best persons are not always placed in the positions where their skills, talents, knowledge and experience can be put to work for the good of the country. Sometimes some of these appointees have checkered history but are still appointed because due diligence was not done or a blind eye was turned to their past.

Take the Jamaica Trade and Investment agency (JTI), formerly JAMPRO. Here is an organization that has as its mission to “enhance trade and investment for the economic benefit of Jamaica by providing facilitation, promotion and advisory services to Investors, Exporters and Producers as well as policy and technical advice to Government.” This is the organization that is responsible for increasing foreign and domestic investments into the country, and as a result increases job creation opportunities, economic growth, standard of living and quality of life for all. Investment is one of the foundations of the government’s plans to create “a better way…for a better Jamaica.”

Anyone who heads JTI must therefore have a proven track record of leadership, experience and accomplishments in the areas that the organization defines as its mission and strategic goals. The person must be creative, proactive and be able to stand tall in the visionary class because we cannot afford the pittance of growth that existed over the last thirty years. He or she must be the leader and not the follower and must be au fait with the workings of trade and investments, locally and internationally.

So with the above said, I was very surprised when I read that Gassan Azan was the choice of Karl Samuda to head the agency. Mr. Azan comes to the chairman’s seat from a family of fine longstanding Jamaican icons, whose primary business has been the retail trade.

Azan went to school in the US but dropped out of college in 1977 and returned home. He wanted to work in his father’s business but his dad said that he was “not qualified.” He then borrowed JA$30,000.00 from his mother and became a route distributor for Carreras selling cigarette. He reportedly made a profit of $12000.00 from his investment, paid back his mother and started his own trading business, buying goods from higglers and selling them back to people including his father.

Since that time he has built two trading empires, namely Bashco and MegaMart. Bashco is all over the island and he just opened his third MegaMart in Montego Bay. Together the three MegaMarts occupy approximately 234 thousand square feet of space. He was awarded the PSOJ job creation award twice and was nominated for the Business Observer Business Leader award in 2000.

Not withstanding his success, Mr. Azan has been embroiled in controversy over the years. In 1999 he was sued by US giant Costco Corporation for infringement rights arising out of the use of “Costco” in his company’s name. The US company also claimed that Mr. Azan was a member of their discount club in the US and that his “business is operated with standards of service and general presentation which are substantially lower than those associated with the plaintiffs' retail operation and feature the sale of counterfeit goods and other substandard items which is particularly damaging to the plaintiffs' because of the detrimental impact of such activity on the plaintiffs' goodwill." Mr. Azan subsequently changed the name to Bascho.

That same year the Revenue Protection Division brought suite against Mr. Azan for importing and having 30,986 pairs of counterfeit sneakers, following complaints from Nike, Adidas and Caterpillars.

Fast forward to 2007 and the millionaire businessman is at the heart of another controversy. This time it has to do with unrecorded electricity that was used at his MegaMart stores in Kingston and Portmore. In a statement from Mr. Azan he claimed that, “unknown to the management of the company, an employee responsible for the maintenance of both properties, in a bid to save energy, collaborated with engineers at the time visiting the island some time last year, to place the devices on the system".

Now I can say this much, Mr. Azan must have one of the greatest human resource machinery at his companies. This is the only acceptable reason why an employee who has nothing to gain from his own action, went out of his way to procure an illegal device to save his employer money without the employer’s knowledge. If there were more persons in Jamaica with this kind of employee loyalty and dedication Jamaica’s GDP would be hovering near to that of China. Currently Mr. Azan is conducting more detail investigation and of course we wait with curiosity, to hear the outcome of this one.

Now I must admit that the controversies Mr. Azan has been implicated in are not many. At the heart of the few however is a common thread of deceit that seems to follow him. Put in places of great significance, such as the head of the JTI, is it possible that this trend would continue? If it does then what will the implication be for the country?

So back to where we started and the following questions become germane. What were the criteria that Mr. Samuda used to appoint Mr. Azan? Is Mr. Azan the best person to lead this 15-man board to achieve the government’s objectives? Is Mr. Azan’s experience sufficient to handle a board and a national entity this large and this important? Was there a list of candidates for the Job? I am sure the answers will not come. In the meantime I will look forward to having Mr. Golding’s dream of having the best people in the most important positions, through a selection process in parliament.