A government minister in Antigua has been strongly criticised in a judge's report on the potential sale of part of a publicly owned mobile phone company to Denis O'Brien's Digicel.

The deal negotiated was for 67 per cent of the company, Apua PCS, in return for $11.39 million (€9.48 million).

The report, by Judge Don Mitchell, was commissioned following controversy in Antigua over transactions involving the Antiguan Public Utility Authority (APUA), which controls a number of utilities including telecoms.

The controversies culminated in the dismissal of the commissioners or board of directors who oversaw the operation of APUA and who were appointed by a new government in 2004.

Judge Mitchell said a "letter of intent" with Digicel for 67 per cent of Apua PCS was negotiated in Jamaica by the minister in charge of APUA, Wilmoth Daniel; the chairman of the commission, Rolston Potter; the finance manager of APUA, and the manager of Apua PCS.

"They entered into a letter of intent with Digicel for the sale of 67 per cent of PCS for $11.39 million. Detailed conditions regarding liberalisation, the transfer of the 1900 MHz spectrum from Cable & Wireless to Digicel, duty-free concessions and no corporate taxes, among many other matters, were agreed upon."

The judge said the agreement was "presumably" legally binding subject only to the approval of the Antiguan cabinet.

"All the APUA participants are proud of their effort in the negotiations with Digicel. The fact is that they were without any professional negotiating assistance. They had no idea what they should have been negotiating... In the absence of such assistance, Digicel would have viewed them as lambs coming to the slaughter."

The judge said it was inappropriate for the minister and Mr Potter to be negotiating such agreements.

A note concerning the paragraph where he makes this criticism says that a copy of his report "found its way into the hands of Digicel" after it had been delivered to cabinet but before it had been published to the public.

Digicel had subsequently taken objection to some content in the paragraph as originally drafted, which had references to stories in newspapers.

"I now acknowledge that some of these stories had been completely misunderstood by me. The truth of others is denied by Digicel. As a result of what I have now learned, I have completely revised this paragraph... I unreservedly apologise to Digicel for any distress caused."

In the report, Judge Mitchell said his criticism of how the deal was negotiated did not mean that Digicel might not be the best partner available for PCS.

He said the people of Antigua deserved a more professional approach to be taken by APUA in a context where there was an "intended divestment of such a large stake in PCS. . . I have no doubt that the intentions of the minister and the chairman were honest and well-meaning. It was the amateurishness of the effort that left them open to the host of suspicions and accusations of corruption that resulted."

Judge Mitchell recommended that the contract with Digicel as negotiated be rejected by the cabinet unless the cabinet is otherwise advised that it is in the best interests of the country.

If it is rejected, then a new contract, if negotiated, should be so done with the assistance of professional advisers, he said.

In his report, Judge Mitchell lists the people he spoke to and does not include anyone from Digicel.

A spokeswoman for Digicel told The Irish Times it was awaiting the cabinet's review. She said Digicel was approached in early 2005 about taking a stake in PCS and was visited by APUA board members.

A further visit led to the signing of a "mutually satisfactory MOU agreement in September 2005. Both parties felt that a strong market price had been offered and accepted".

She said Digicel had no objections to the issuing of Judge Mitchell's report once the defamatory section was removed.

"Judge Mitchell has never spoken directly to or interviewed any Digicel executives in regard to the fully transparent due diligence process undertaken by the board of Apua PCS.

"His account of the thoughts of Digicel executives is inventive storytelling."