good afternoon it's Wednesday July 24 I'm Herman green with your midday news
for those of you watching online on one spot mediacom a very special welcome to
you a circular from the Ministry of Finance and planning has shown that
ministers of government can be issued a government-funded credit card the matter
came up for discussion in the House of Representatives following questions
raised by the parliamentary opposition about the appropriateness of a credit
card being issued to former Education Minister rural read the circular updated
in 2009 and located on the ministry's website states that a card referred to
as an individual credit card should be issued to only ministers of government
permanent secretaries heads of departments and chief executive officers
of executive agencies and public bodies for the acquisition of a credit card for
a minister the permanent secretary must obtain the written approval of the
financial secretary the ministry has also proved or rather provided
guidelines for approval which includes the name and post of the accounting
office responsible for monitoring and reporting on the use of the credit card
and the name and person authorized to use the card speaking at this morning's
post cabinet press briefing acting permanent secretary and Ministry of
Education dr. grace McLean outlined when approval was granted for the issuance of
a card to mr. Reed that was given on September 20 29 2016 from the Minister
of Finance giving the former Minister they approval to be the holder of this
credit card she added that the ministry has a monitoring system there is a
monitoring system that the ministry has in place the monitoring system means
that once the credit card is used the bills are submitted there is a
reconciliation that is done with the bills that are provided from the bank
this is checked off by the principal financial officer she ensures that the
limit on the card is not exceeded and she will replenish based on
the limit as is necessary it has also stipulated the credit-card
limit in both Jamaican and US currency for the local single currency card the
limits must not be more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and for an
international currency card the limit should not surpass two thousand five
hundred US dollars the Auditor General's performance audit reports into the
operations of the Ministry of Education was released yesterday afternoon our
news team has been going through the report and Anthony Logue details some of
the findings among the Auditor General's findings the Caribbean maritime
University it said despite warnings from national contracts Commission the
Ministry of Education entered in to design and build contract with the
Caribbean maritime University for construction works at nine schools this
the report noted without following required control and due procedure to
enable a receipt of value for money as at July this year the Auditor General
said the Education Minister made payments for works at the nine schools
totalling 171 million dollars with proposed contracts variation submitted
by CMU to the ministry the contracts are expected to increase by fifty nine
million or twenty seven percent to two hundred and seventy seven million
dollars the original contract sum of two hundred and eighteen million dollars the
Auditor General said the CMU commenced undertaking the variation works with all
the required approvals from the Ministry of Education according to the Auditor
General the Ministry bypassed the due diligence of the procurement committee
and further breached the procurement guideline by its failure to obtain the
approval of the NCC for seven of the contracts based on values Ministry of
Education Youth and information also bypassed the requirement to obtain the
requisite approvals from the local municipal authorities and the Jamaica
Fire Brigade in order to ensure that buildings meet the established safety
standards all the construction works exceeded the contractual deadline the AG
said the Ministry of Education urgently put in place appropriate
systems to enable better coordination between procurement and stock management
to facilitate time planning for contract award to benefit from greater economic
savings to competitive bidding meanwhile the AG also pointed the deficiencies in
inventory management and monitoring of textbooks and furniture
resulting in inefficient distribution and buildup of unused items and phony
log TVJ news meanwhile opposition spokesman on education Ronald sweets has
expressed disbelief at the irregularities pointed out in the
Auditor General's performance audit report on the Education Ministry at
Wednesday's post cabinet press briefing Minister with responsibility for the
education portfolio cards amudha sought to explain the 277 million dollars in
contracts with the Caribbean maritime university for school refurbishing many
of the instances what we found was the condition of the facilities were to be
repaired were so dilapidated and threatened the safety of the occupants
of the things in some instances there were on the verge of collapsing on the
children so swift action had to be taken that does not mean that it was devoid of
the possibility of engaging the proper process mr. Thwaite says while he may
understand the need for the CMU to be engaged the whole situation is
unacceptable the procedure and the scope of the arrangement however was obviously
right for corruption and should never have been allowed
it appears that within the Ministry of Education and I can't believe that
nobody else in government knew about it people were allowed to do exactly as
they please this has to do with all of the credit card the corruption etc
involving CMU as well and there was no check on it nobody knew what was going
on permanent secretary financial officers members of cabinet prime
minister I can't believe that meanwhile mr. with portfolio responsibility for
education Carl Samudra says the ministry does not have the right to interfere
with the operations of the edna Manley College of the visual and performing
arts his comments followed the alleged sexual harassment of a student of the
college by a lecturer speaking at this morning's post cabinet press briefing Mr
Samudra said the ministry can only seek to intervene and provide suggestions as
the school is run by a board the Permanent Secretary has the authority to
implant ourselves on the management of atomically once we detect that there are
deficiencies that rise to the level of great concern we can intervene by
convenient eating with the board but we give the board under the structure the
authority to act on behalf of the ministry as recently as coming here this
morning I spoke to the chairman of the board and letters on route if you've
gotten it yet she has sent a letter outlining certain findings so on and we
will act on their recommendation meanwhile clarification from mr. Samudra
about documents which were shredded upon former ministers the former ministers
departure from the ministry the opposition people's National Party
suggested previously that the documents related to the carrion Martin University
CMU were destroyed and rural really left that office but when quizzed in
Parliament yesterday mr. Samudra rejected the claim the
permanent secretary acting permanently acting on the instructions of the
cabinet secretary was advised consistent with the regulations to destroy all
documents relating to the cabinet decisions that were in the possession of
the former minister in the office and those were destroyed consistent with
what happens every time I mean has removed our leaves a ministry he
also explained the process but the opposition still had questions it's a
very detailed process and it is certified and signed off by members of
the security of the ministry and various levels of civil servants who are charged
with that specific responsibility it was there are no other documents destroyed
anywhere in the Ministry of Education and Minister confirm whether officials
from fidn see talk who would have commenced an investigation at a ministry
were one gave our authority for those documents to be destroyed and were
present when those documents were destroyed fib cannot instruct the
ministry and you should know better than that they were not present it is it is
not their business and I tell you better you can just take up a cabinet document
and take it out of the room if you take it out of the room on your phone did it
you go to prison understand that so these documents are carefully managed
and we now take a break here on the midday news but stay with us more
stories after these messages welcome back continuing the news
pressure is mounting on the government to give a more comprehensive statement
on the recent agreement with a private company to conduct deep seabed mining
the Jamaican environment trust jet is pushing for a firm stance to be taken
and more information to be given the agitation follows yesterday's protest
outside the International seabed authority in downtown Kingston by
representatives of jet and several other groups including international
environmental group Greenpeace is reported that cabinet has approved deep
seabed mining through a company called blue minerals Jamaica speaking yesterday
on behind beyond the headlines CEO of jet Susan Stanley claimed that efforts
to get more information were unsuccessful it would be good for I mean
the information was released to the media was very limited in March as I say
you know we try to get more information you know we did come upon this roadblock
we've tried to get further details but you don't the the overwhelming response
has just kind of been well you know it's confidential agreement so you know we we
said well you know give us some information at least you know so we can
have a better understanding of why we're in why we've entered into this agreement
and you know some of the implications what so there hasn't been much force
coming there among other things jet wants details of the agreement on how
the operations will be carried out and the implications for the marine
environment educational psychologist dr. Alison Krauss says Jamaica's moved to
implement pip was a step in the right direction he says a major part of
developing the minds of children at that age is to support their cognitive
development and how they interact socially now dr. cross says parents need
to also foster relationships with their children's teachers she was speaking at
a recent forum on life after pep put on by Victoria mutual wealth prosecutors
say in coming days they expect to receive DNA results which should help
their probe of the sexual the recent sexual assault cases in Port Morris and
Catherine they made the disclosure yesterday after attorney Vincent WA
Leslie who is representing Chadian Harris raised the issue again before the
st. Catherine Parish court prosecutors expect the DNA results in at least one
of the cases on the investigation mr. Harris was arrested as a prime suspect
in the sexual assault of more than a dozen women he has since been charged
with three counts of burglary and wounding with intent in one of the
alleged home invasions he's accused of stabbing a female bank employee five
times yesterday investigators submitted statements that mr. Harris's
fingerprints were found at the locations no they are to submit the forensic
report at his next court date which is on September 19 and
for a preview of what's coming up in this evenings health report in the next
edition of the health report we look at corrective also known as plastic surgery
I think they need to realize that even though most of these surgeries are done
as a date case meaning you don't admit to the hospital or you only spend one
night in hospital these are significant procedures and require significant
periods of rest and recovery because people feel that because we are not
admitted to hospital or for any significant period of time the surgery
can't be that serious that's the health report this evening in primetime news
and now for today's healthy living tip people who are considering cosmetic
surgery need to weigh their options carefully choose a reputable surgeon and
check in their credentials after obtaining the surgeons opinion make your
own decisions and resist being persuaded to opt for something you did not
previously want get full information about the procedure and weigh up all the
pros and cons beforehand and be aware of any risks and limitations
we go down to news in sports Excelsior highs Kirk McKenzie has been named
captain of Jamaica's under-19 cricket team ahead of the upcoming regional
youth tournament to be held in st. Vincent and the Grenadines McKenzie who
is one of the top scorers in the local under-19 competition is looking forward
to leading the country's next generation of cricketers I'm very confident that
the team is balanced a good mixture of our owners and batsman so I think would
win the tournament my patient and those pitches have been slow say carried a
rush to cricket I think we do because the players are really learning to play
on those temperatures of Team Manager Gibbs Williams expects the unit to do
well at the upcoming tournament having had an extended preparation period
before I say what I've seen I'm very excited about the format had to come to
end this year we'll be playing let me talk about cricket and that's our 40 we
in Jamaica we play out of school ever we play one day is cricket and down we are
very very happy about that what I've seen this year is a level of excitement
and camaraderie that I've not seen in new teams over the last three four years
so that makes me very optimistic and excited the full squad reads Kurt
McKenzie Ricardo McIntosh Daniel Beckford Xavier Burton Christopher green
Andre Morgan a day in Thompson TYIN Garrett Andre Blake Michael Thompson
Andre smiley Masi oka Mary Lennox Simpson and Ricardo Thompson the team is
caught by Terrence cork the team will have its final practice game on
Wednesday against the Jamaica scorpions before leaving on Friday for the July 25
to almost 10 competition and that wraps up the midday news I'm Herman green join
us at 7:00 for prime time news on behalf of the new sports and production teams
good afternoon
you