12 Facts About Phillip Paulwell

Phillip Paulwell was born on 14 January 1962 and is a Jamaican politician.

Phillip Paulwell is the sitting President of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union and the Chairman of the PNP's Region 3, a position he has held since 2006.

An attorney-at-law by profession, Phillip Paulwell started his political career in 1995 as a Senator and Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry Investment and Commerce under the then governing PNP administration.

In 2006, Phillip Paulwell successfully contested an internal PNP election, for the position of Chairman of the party's Region 3, which encompasses electoral constituencies in the country's capital, Kingston and St Andrew.

Phillip Paulwell personally intervened in March 2002 by calling the OUR Director General, Winston Hay, telling him that a fourth telecommunications provider was interested in investing in Jamaica, but would only do so if the FTM rates stayed the same.

Digicel's last attempt appeal to the Privy Council was unsuccessful: the Privy Council again ruled that Phillip Paulwell's Direction was outside his ministerial powers.

Phillip Paulwell was at the centre of a telecoms scandal in 2007, after he noted that the sale of Jamaica's fourth cellular licence would go to a company known as Solutrea Jamaica Limited.

However, when it became unclear whether Solutrea had paid in the full sum, it emerged that Phillip Paulwell had issued the licence without all the required public agencies agreeing to the sale.

One accusation levelled at Phillip Paulwell was that, despite recommendations from the Jamaican Bureau of Standards, he had failed to exercise his Ministerial authority to declare that the production of cement must conform to the Bureau's certification programme.

Phillip Paulwell was accused of providing false information and misleading Parliament.

Phillip Paulwell approved a J$180 million loan of public funds to NetServ without matching equity and after a due diligence report raised serious questions about the business conduct of the company's principal, Paul Pereira.

Phillip Paulwell later admitted that it was an error not to insist that the company put up US$6 million in equity before the National Investment Bank of Jamaica granted it the original loan.