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Where is the money?
Probe to determine whereabouts of missing cheque to postal department
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, July 18, 2008
A high-level probe is to begin into the disappearance of a US$100,000 cheque made out to the Post and Telecoms Department by the United States Postal Service (USPS) but which never made it into the island, according to Postmaster General Michael Gentles.
The question of the missing cheque, which was made out in November 2001, surfaced Tuesday during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to consider the 2005/06 report of the Auditor General.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Jean Dixon, said the cheque was "apparently encashed by somebody outside of Jamaica" as there was no record of it by the department or banks in Jamaica.
"We have been attempting to get details on the encashment of this cheque without success. We have referred the matter to the Attorney General's chambers to see what assistance can be provided or what action we need to take," she told the PAC meeting.
According to Gentles "there are no records to show" that the cheque, which was to settle a debt due to the Post and Telecommunications Department, ever came into Jamaica.
"We have no record whatsoever of that cheque reaching Jamaica or being encashed in Jamaica. All the evidence we have unearthed so far indicates (it was not cashed here). Our local police have told us that they can find no evidence whatsoever that the cheque was lodged or encashed in Jamaica, so they told us they couldn't take the matter any further," he told the committee.
He said efforts to find out from the United States Postal Administration if the cheque was cashed or credited to somebody's account also proved "futile", and that the administration provided no proof that the cheque had actually been sent by mail.
He described the paper trail as "somewhat blurry" as the department has since been told that the bank at which the cheque was cashed - the First Union Bank in Philadelphia - has since been merged.
"They said the bank was merged with some other bank and they don't have that information. All they were able to furnish us with was an electronic copy. When we look at the cheque the stamp that is on the back is clearly fraudulent, because the Department's name is spelt incorrectly and we have stopped using a stamp like this years before," said Gentles.
But committee members led by former minister of finance and planning, Dr Omar Davies, said they were more than a little troubled by the sequence of events, especially when Gentles disclosed that the Post and Telecoms Department wrote its first letter inquiring about the missing cheque in February of 2004 - although the USPS informed the department that it had sent the cheque in October 2003.
"So Ja$7 million due to us plus interest has just disappeared. We can't leave it like this," Davies said.
"This is one of the matters I would encourage you to take to the highest level. This can't go like this. It's also a police matter and it's also something for which I think investigations should take place in the US," he added.
Committee member Dr Morais Guy agreed. "If a cheque was sent to us and the person who wrote the cheque indicated that it was encashed but we did not do it, it means that a fraud has been committed," he remarked.
Probe to determine whereabouts of missing cheque to postal department
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, July 18, 2008
A high-level probe is to begin into the disappearance of a US$100,000 cheque made out to the Post and Telecoms Department by the United States Postal Service (USPS) but which never made it into the island, according to Postmaster General Michael Gentles.
The question of the missing cheque, which was made out in November 2001, surfaced Tuesday during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to consider the 2005/06 report of the Auditor General.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Jean Dixon, said the cheque was "apparently encashed by somebody outside of Jamaica" as there was no record of it by the department or banks in Jamaica.
"We have been attempting to get details on the encashment of this cheque without success. We have referred the matter to the Attorney General's chambers to see what assistance can be provided or what action we need to take," she told the PAC meeting.
According to Gentles "there are no records to show" that the cheque, which was to settle a debt due to the Post and Telecommunications Department, ever came into Jamaica.
"We have no record whatsoever of that cheque reaching Jamaica or being encashed in Jamaica. All the evidence we have unearthed so far indicates (it was not cashed here). Our local police have told us that they can find no evidence whatsoever that the cheque was lodged or encashed in Jamaica, so they told us they couldn't take the matter any further," he told the committee.
He said efforts to find out from the United States Postal Administration if the cheque was cashed or credited to somebody's account also proved "futile", and that the administration provided no proof that the cheque had actually been sent by mail.
He described the paper trail as "somewhat blurry" as the department has since been told that the bank at which the cheque was cashed - the First Union Bank in Philadelphia - has since been merged.
"They said the bank was merged with some other bank and they don't have that information. All they were able to furnish us with was an electronic copy. When we look at the cheque the stamp that is on the back is clearly fraudulent, because the Department's name is spelt incorrectly and we have stopped using a stamp like this years before," said Gentles.
But committee members led by former minister of finance and planning, Dr Omar Davies, said they were more than a little troubled by the sequence of events, especially when Gentles disclosed that the Post and Telecoms Department wrote its first letter inquiring about the missing cheque in February of 2004 - although the USPS informed the department that it had sent the cheque in October 2003.
"So Ja$7 million due to us plus interest has just disappeared. We can't leave it like this," Davies said.
"This is one of the matters I would encourage you to take to the highest level. This can't go like this. It's also a police matter and it's also something for which I think investigations should take place in the US," he added.
Committee member Dr Morais Guy agreed. "If a cheque was sent to us and the person who wrote the cheque indicated that it was encashed but we did not do it, it means that a fraud has been committed," he remarked.
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