good afternoon i'm vashan brown with the midday news a special welcome if you're
watching on onespotmedia.com we begin with a
developing story in the region a hurricane watch remains in effect for
barbados and saint vincent and the grenadines
as tropical storm gonzalo continues along the path to the caribbean
tropical storm gonzalo is expected to begin affecting portions of the windward
islands on saturday after gaining hurricane
strength forecasters say the storm's structure
has become a little disheveled and there's still uncertainty in gonzalo's
intensity forecast they say out of an abundance of caution
the official forecast continues to show gonzalo becoming a hurricane
in about 24 hours rainfall is expected over barbados
trinidad and tobago and the windward islands which
includes saint vincent and the grenadines and dominica from tomorrow to
sunday at 11 o'clock this morning the center of
tropical storm gonzalo was moving toward the west
near 13 miles per hour maximum sustained winds are near 62 miles per hour
now back on the local scene a man who is believed to be one of the shooters
in the incident on constant spring road in santandro this morning
is in hospital on the police guard after he turned up for treatment
another of the alleged gunmen was shot and killed during the reported
confrontation with the police two police officers were shot and
injured the incident happened about 1 30.
it was reported that two policemen were on patrol when they observed a white
honda civic parked on the road they approached the vehicle and
attempted to make inquiries the occupants reportedly fired on the
policemen hitting them both before attempting to
flee the injured officers returned the gunfire
and the car crashed a short distance away now one of the men
ran from the vehicle and the driver who received the bullet wound was held
the injured persons were taken to hospital where the unidentified driver
died while undergoing treatment a retrograde step
the response from the commission of the independent commission of investigations
in the come terrence williams to the government's decision not to give
the commission prosecutorial powers justice minister del or chuck told
parliament on tuesday that his administration no longer thinks
it's necessary for indicom to be given such powers but
speaking on tvj's all angles last night mr williams says the decision is bad for
police accountability the privy council ruled earlier this
year that indicom does not have the power to arrest
charge and prosecute members of the security forces but a joint select
committee of parliament in 2015 said indicom should be given those
powers this was the justice minister del roy chuck in parliament on tuesday mr
speaker in light of the private council's ruling
and the recent increase in the numbers of prosecutors
in the dpp's office the present administration
reconsidered the joint select committee's recommendation
to this in the commerce prosecutorial police
and thought it no longer necessary for such prosecutorial powers
to be given to indicom outgoing commissioner of indicom terence williams
says the government's decision not to give the commission prosecutorial powers
is a bad move i'm very disappointed i think it's going
to set back police accountability many many years
the police in jamaica
are being now put in a position where they are going to be
somewhat exceptional and above the law in that
if the police bringing a case against uri
they need no dpp permission to bring it they can bring it
but to bring a case against the policeman it's now
the the administration is saying the dpp must permit
it and indeed a combination of the dpp and the police must put it before the
court so mr williams has this question why can't indicom
enjoy the same powers as the police have to put matters before the court the
minister's statement in parliament did not mention whether indicum would be
given the polls to arrest and charge members of the security forces
mr chuck spoke specifically about prosecutorial powers
but mr williams says based on his information the plan is that the powers
to arrest and charge will be between the office of the
director of public prosecutions and the police what i particularly
distressed about this is the process to reach the decision was that there was
a joint select committee now five almost seven years ago and the
joint select committee heard all of the submissions by police
federation everybody and they said no intercom must
be able to arrest charge and prosecute and then what
happens over the years now the police um behind the scenes lobby the
government to say no ineco mustn't have that power
and the government falls to the police lobbying
in the meantime mr williams believes the government's decision is not good for
the work of in the comments it weakens the command of the institution
it weakens police accountability it is a a retrograde step by the administration
i only have a few days left but for a few days that i have left i will
criticize it and i will continue to say it's a very
poor step
concerns this afternoon about the operations of the emergency pause review
tribunal now the tribunal adjudicates on appeals
brought by persons who have been detained under the states
of public emergency attorney law isaac buchanan described the
tribunal as toothless there are situations where our competent
judges who are trained and sits in the court of appeal
in the court on the court of appeal to uphold the constitution
says what you have on the man officer presents himself and the judge
says not sufficient give him bail without conditions
and officer says hold on the judge think she should know too much you know too
much take him up in the in the state of
emergency and the minister says i'm satisfied and then the toothless
tribunal says well the minister is satisfied we are
not here to to use reasonable doubt as long as the
minister drinks his tea and waves his pen we we sign and we are
okay and we're different from the court the court do their thing and you
disrespect a judge and you that's a breach of the doctrinal separations of
all what we're saying is that the tribunals
are told by the regulation to deem all persons in custody has been in
lawful custody and that's what regulations say so they
start with the assumption that the persons are in custody lawful that's the
first thing secondly the tribunal will also tell you
that they're not there to replace the court they're not trying
the matters to decide whether or not mr mati
say kill me kill somebody or not what they're there to do is just to look at
is there simply enough persons who you don't know
unknown sources even to the tribunal who make allegations about you
both mr clark and mr buchanan were speaking on tvj's all angles last night
following an order by the supreme court that five men detained under several of
the existing states of public emergency should be freed the five men had been
detained in states of emergency in westmoreland
centennial south and east kingston the men had asked
the court to have their detentions declared unlawful and unconstitutional
we now take a break on the middle news but we'll be right back please stay with
us
welcome back continuing the news now the education ministry says it will make
significant changes to schools across the island
in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus when students return to
the classroom in september the issue was raised at yesterday's
virtual launch of a high-level commission on education transformation
prince moore reports the kovit 19 pandemic has forced the government to
institute changes to jamaica's education system
but many have been asking what will schools look like come september when
students return to the classroom the ministry of education says it will
adopt what it calls a blended teaching method in all schools
come september as part of efforts to prevent the spread
of covet 19. education minister carl samuda says the
approach will see students alternating between physically attending school
and doing classes online as i speak we are finalizing
preparations for the beginning of the 20 20 21
school year we have adopted a blended approach
so in september our students will receive instructions
both face to face and via distance and online under online teaching
while the blended approach is a remedy for teaching and learning during the
covet 19 pandemic prime minister anja holness believes
there are other gaps in the education system
the new world bank human capital index ranks
each country in terms of productivity of the next generation of workers and
identifies jamaica as among the countries that have made
significant human capital gains despite the progress however important
gaps remain the world bank study points out that
children born in jamaica today will be only 54
as productive when they grow up as they could be
if they enjoyed complete education and full health it's why mr wholeness on
wednesday launched a high level commission on
education transformation the commission which consists of 14
members will be tasked with conducting a
comprehensive review and assessment of the country's
education system after which a report is to be completed by march next year
mr wholeness believes the commission can help to fill those gaps
what i'm looking for is not tinkering or tweaking
but real radical change that will put jamaica on an entirely new
trajectory to growth and prosperity
the commission will be chaired by professor orlando patterson
a jamaican who is professor of sociology at harvard university in the united
states the commission also includes dean of the
faculty of science and technology at the university of the west indies mona
professor michael taylor acting president of the university of
technology professor colin giles as well as ceo of
edu focal gordon swaby among others prince moore
tvj news it's not immediately clear if holland produces limited
will be able to pay the government for lands occupied for roughly a year
scj holdings and its partners will be doing an assessment but so far
the company's financial standing is not looking good
andrea chisholm has details from parliament's public administration
and appropriations committee pac holland produces limited
hpl got permission from scj holdings to use 2 400 acres of land in holland st
elizabeth pending the finalization of a lease agreement
as is usually the case hpl would be required to pay the lease amount
retroactively from the time it took control of the
property paac member mikhail phillips raised concerns with managing director
of scg holdings joseph care so there are
two issues one you blundered for not putting in a
lease within that one year period and two is that know that they have even
sent you some of them need to pay something to the taxpayers
so may i remember let me start off by saying
i have to agree with you that at least should have been in place at an earlier
date no question it puts a number of issues
beyond dispute so how much will hollande producers
limited hpl b-paying scg for the july 2019 to july 2020 period
mr shakir said an assessment will be done in conjunction with the agriculture
ministry and agro-investment corporation aic
which now owns holland estate it's interesting
to note that hpl's account summary shows lease income
of roughly 6.5 million and expenditure 6.2 million dollars accounts receivables
or money to be collected stand at approximately 7.2 million
clearly the accounts when verified will have an implication on the outcome
of those discussions because if it turns out
as has been indicated which is that there is uncollectible receivables
no i don't know the quality of the
receivables but if they are uncollected receivables of seven million dollars
now you and i and members will understand that
if this is owned by farmers it's going to be held to collect
as for accounts payable meaning money owed
that stands at roughly 6.6 million dollars
from the advice from the inquiries i have made
that the accounts payable represent in that
represent almost in its entirety outstanding security charges for
securing the property why i looked at these numbers here
because this may end up telling you what is the financial position of hbo
it may be an insolvent company scj holdings was
introduced to hbl through a letter from mp
and then minister without portfolio in the agriculture ministry
j.c hutchinson mr hutchinson has since apologized stating that his actions were
never for personal benefit mr phillips questioned
the track record of hbl which was incorporated in may 2019. but
you took up an entity that had no track record of
was it because of the word of the minister himself but clearly the
recommendation of the member of parliament is significant
it turns out that one of the directors of hbl
lola marshall williams was mr hutchinson's partner and
mother of his child she has since resigned from the company
as well as the board of the rural agriculture development agency radha
paac chairman dr vika mcneil read a section of a report
from scj holdings for the avoidance of doubt it needs to be expressly stated
that scg had absolutely no knowledge of any connection between mrs marshall
williams might have had with any government of jamaica official
andrea chisholm tvj news volunteers from the corporate era
participated in a cleanup exercise of the sergani beach
along the kingston harbour recently over 150 bags of waste material were removed
from the beach there's also a call for persons to be
more careful with garbage disposal
i think it's a very bad practice i think it's a selfish habit and
i think persons need to become more conscious about
how they dispose their waste and their garbage i think it's terrible
right and i think that we need to educate the children
because in other schools if you go there after lunch break
there's garbage all around the school and they should be told to pick it up
you know if they don't do it in schools or at their homes then they won't come
out or grow up to know what to do minister
without portfolio and the minister of national security matthew samuda
confirmed that there was a major reduction in styrofoam and plastic
bottles on the beach he says despite the positive sign
there's need for a joint approach from all stakeholders
to address the issue of garbage disposal there are several programs geared at
dealing with i know nepal has a plastic initiative a plastic reduction
initiative in the area nswm has a a project for separation most
of these projects are in there they're in fancy and in their pilot
stage there's a pilot project going on for the deposit refund scheme with
jamaica recycling group um so there's several initiatives coming
together what we need now is to upscale our ambition and to
really get everybody to work together to tie the veering programs into one
there's work to be done in terms of how people behave and there's work to be
done certainly at a government level and
whatever in terms of increasing capacity we have noted several new garbage trucks
added to the fleet recently with nswma which is a step in the right direction
and a big move for the ministry local government and a big move from ministry
of finance tana for sports netball jamaica could be
in line to benefit from the international netball federation
covet 19 response fund which has been created for each region to address
financial challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic the
inf said the fund would provide immediate support
to those members with the greatest need membership fees for
2020 2021 for 2021 will be reduced by 50 compared to 2020
for those organizations who have paid in full for this year
as part of measures designed to alleviate the financial impact of the
pandemic on the sport and its members the inf is
also set to enter the final stage of the planning process
for its new strategic plan due to be launched later this year now members
provided feedback to the inf on the plan in a series of regional
online road shows held last month and that's the middle news
i'm vaishan brown don't forget to join us at 7 for a primetime news package
on behalf of the news sports and production teams have a wonderful
afternoon