Operational breaches at St Catherine council

[Lazie]

published: Tuesday | November 7, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>



THE St. Catherine Parish Council was one of three parish councils audited and singled out, in a recent Ministry of <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">Local </SPAN><SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">Government</SPAN> and Environment report, to have carried out several operational breaches. The others were St. Mary and Westmoreland.

Like the Kingston and St. Andrew <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: orange 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">Corporation</SPAN> (KSAC) last year, these parish councils were found to have breached procurement guidelines and financial irregularities which were detected by the auditors. The inspections were done for the Financial Year April 2005 - March 2006.

Here are some of the ills as revealed by the report.

A total of $3,501,209 was paid to suppliers who supplied services more than twice.

Goods totalling $1,736,508 were taken to the Procurement Committee and there was only one quotation (supplier <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: orange 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">invoice</SPAN>) seen for the purchase of these goods.

<SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">Government's </SPAN><SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">procurement</SPAN> guideline states that goods valued less than $250,000 must be

[Lazie]

RE: Operational breaches at St Catherine council

Media barred from parish council meeting
published: Tuesday | November 7, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>

Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

<SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">Spanish</SPAN> Town, St. Catherine:

Members of the media were barred yesterday from a special meeting of the St. Catherine Parish Council, organised to discuss an <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">audit </SPAN><SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">report</SPAN> exposing irregularities at the council, before it descended into chaos and had to be cut short.

The meeting had been convened to discuss the recent findings by auditors, hired by the Ministry of Local Government, that the council had gone against regulation and procurement guidelines in handing out several contracts without the prior approval of the contracts committee.

However, an attempt to gain entry to the council building was blocked by security personnel who claimed they were <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: orange 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">acting</SPAN> under instructions to keep the media out of the meeting.

While monitoring developments from outside the building, journalists could hear angry councillors shouting at each other in the meeting room on the second <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">floor</SPAN>.

The shouting match continued for about an hour before the meeting ended abru

[Lazie]

RE: Operational breaches at St Catherine council

What tha? A di trend now? Where is the transparency? Minister Peart did the right thing calling in the police. Who fi guh a jail, guh a jail. Who mek too much money off a job, seize dem assets and lock dem up fi fraud.

[Karl]

RE: Operational breaches at St Catherine council

Yuh brave fi put dis hup aftah yuh a talk lacka seh a hone-ly did PNP ave problems wid corruption.

Yuh realise seh di JLP control mos-ah di PC dem? Henny way di ole a dem corrupt! JLP council &amp; PNP council!

We have never had a government...certainly during my

life-time...that did not have elements of corruption. Now the degree of corruption increases as the years roll by as the money the government handles and the influences it wields increases.

[Sickko]

RE: Operational breaches at St Catherine council

Ha ha ha...I am sure they wont even put up that the Great Desmond McKenzie is also under probe after it was found out he has stakes in the compnaies that gets all the contracts to fix pot holes in Kingston and parts of St Andrew and St catherine....

[Lazie]

RE: Operational breaches at St Catherine council

Over a year now Bruce tabled 2 bills that would put a stop to all a this. Wha yuh people dem duh wid the bill? Now yuh see why it better the JLP fi run the country? Unuh willing fi hold dem accountable.

[Lazie]

RE: Operational breaches at St Catherine council

Karl (11/7/2006)Yuh brave fi put dis hup aftah yuh a talk lacka seh a hone-ly did PNP ave problems wid corruption.

Yuh realise seh di JLP control mos-ah di PC dem? Henny way di ole a dem corrupt! JLP council &amp; PNP council!

We have never had a government...certainly during my

life-time...that did not have elements of corruption. Now the degree of corruption increases as the years roll by as the money the government handles and the influences it wields increases.

Whats brave about it? Lazie keep it real Karl. Now yuh gonna twist my words? At no time I said the JLP were saints. The fact remain, the PNP gov't is the most corrupt we've ever had. Since unuh cannot hold dem accountable, better the JLP run the country. Dem would have to be on dem toes .... as they should.