'FINSAC ruined me' - Man loses business, home during '90s me

[Muadib]

oh... mi figghet seh you 'born again'.. me memba di days when yuh was a war wid Christie...

Wheh yuh call it when yuh ready.. 'value received' ?

Yuh memba di days when one man did deh pon 30 Boards...?.. sorry.. God...

lol !

[Peter R]

Jawge... when yuh come ah Trinidad mi wi link yuh up some good Trini weed.! seen? yuh prob'ly cyaan duh widout! jeeezass!

[Muadib]

What kill Jamaica economy ?

David Smith or di Global Ponzi ?

lol !!

Next ting yuh ah guh seh is dat Casino Gambling gwine kill di Jamaican Economy..or Lotto.. or Horse Racing..

lol !

[Karl]

oh... mi figghet seh you 'born again'.. me memba di days when yuh was a war wid Christie...

Wheh yuh call it when yuh ready.. 'value received' ?

Yuh memba di days when one man did deh pon 30 Boards...?.. sorry.. God...

lol !

I will war with him again if he comes back with the nonsense about he must not be questioned.

[Muadib]

..and the 30 Boards model ?

Seems like a recipe for Conflict of Interest..

Nuh mek mi haffi dig up my COI posts...

[Sickko]

Well also he did say here that he was a star baller in high school and was at a young age beseeched by older established footballers to come play DCup... more than a few of those who went to school with him had a hearty laugh at that one effort to rewrite history

[Karl]

Finsac, the comedy

Finsac, the comedy
Franklin Johnston


Friday, December 18, 2009




The Finsac spectacle will achieve little. Honourable men will harm their reputations, do the same to others, cost taxpayers and sow discord in our nation. There will be no winners as positions are taken based on self-interest. The millions whose pennies were rescued have no voice compared with the few who lost big bucks. The inquiry is fatally flawed. This debacle is unprecedented and we need an independent financial inquiry.

The four questions to benefit us are: What caused the crisis? Why did foreign banks not fail? Were the solutions correct given best practice? What are the lessons for us today? Everything else is ego, cass-cass, showboating and hyperventilation! All time-wasting!

This inquiry is not judicial. The core finance and economics remit needs as chair an economist from Barbados or Trinidad and like independent experts. This panel is underqualified and underprepared for this remit. It solves nothing and may do much harm.

The panel is under-informed. It needs a technical team to analyse data, reports and public submissions; to write issue papers, make presentations in camera, on context, issues and international best practice. Questions would then be formulated and the interviewees chosen. The questions would then be sent to interviewees who would get research help, access to the files they last saw many years ago and be paid a stipend for their effort. Their written replies would be sent to the panel who could then prepare for the public process.

This is not a trial; it's not about catching any one off guard. It's to get the facts on this "train wreck" so we can avoid another one, not about hype! This evidence process will tell us the "who" and the "what" happened. The public process will clarify motive - the "why?" Persons who lost money can add no value to this inquiry. The questions should be put to those who were responsible for banks' and government's policies and actions. The eminent jurist and his panel are being used, and the bullying of eminent former civil servants is pathetic. This unprecedented economic loss merits a serious financial inquiry. Look at the world, fools! This media circus shames us all. It will end badly!

Corruption runs deep

If we fix the political culture, corruption can be minimised. The Trevor Munroe-led National Integrity Forum is a marker of our intent. But intent is not action. It should expose and excise corruption. The forum includes the gatekeepers of major areas and we must help them help us. It also needs a technical secretariat. The focus for Year 1 should be to change the politics and our corrupt culture. Politics sets the tone for the society.

At a billion-dollar contract signing, a minister says, seemingly in jest, "I sign this big thing yet I can't afford a little car for my daughter, I need another job!" The contractor knows the code - we all do - so a Kia appears on the forecourt of his walled fortress within the week. Are his hands clean? A minister asked my colleague to be his girlfriend as he could "do things" for her family's business. She was shocked and avoids him at social events but fears he may hurt her father's business.

Corruption comes in all forms. All value - tangible or intangible - is a threat to integrity, and the NIF needs an expert to design its framework for action. A veiled threat is as corrupt as actual loss of job, money, goods, favours (sexual ones too), recognition, contracts, etc. Big political corruption works through the private sector, friends and family. Small inter-ministry corruption as "you employ my girl riend and I will employ yours" or "I pass your car and you see my goods through customs" is just as pernicious. Here are some priorities:
*Deal with small things which feed the corrupt culture in the best practice manual. The ease with which people who email me say "you will NEVER work in Jamaica again!" - based on my articles - tells me if you criticise the government you must be deprived of your job. We must stamp out this corruption. When Minister Holness rants that the civil service is not supporting the JLP's "views" my sixth sense perks up. Once upon a time, a minister was tasked by Cabinet to do corrupt dismissals; he was a good man so he tried to scare people into unemploying themselves - it didn't work and the minister lost his job. Good MPs need support to remain good as the old boys try to pervert them - "See, you no betta dan we!", idealism dies and they too become venal. But what "views"is Minister Holness referring to? The JLP and PNP have no ideology, policy or programme split for civil servants to side with; even free health care is more socialist than capitalist. Keep watching, what is hidden will soon be revealed!

*Insulate all value-contracts, jobs, benefits - from politicians. Create new manuals of audit, assurance; prompt inspection and serious penalties for abusers.

*Agree on the posts which are required to submit resignations when governments change, for example, board chairman. Publish the list and save Minister Holness the stress of asking them.

*Garrisons are sustained by MPs with indefinite terms. Term limits and a steady turnover of MPs can bring diversity to one-dimension constituencies.

*The state must give a set grant to political parties to preserve democracy and their institutional records. In return, donations above a set amount must identify the donor.

*The press must step up. Our media must match our corruption rating. Old-style investigative stuff is not enough. UK papers paid for documents which expose MP's rip-off expenses. Copy this example! Journalists in disguise, "fake Sheik", etc, with micro video, audio and remote technology, uncovered corrupt political deals. Yes, we can!

*Whistleblowers must be paid a bounty to reveal economic crimes and corrupt acts and we can rebrand informer as "bounty hunter". Publish an 800 number and pay for pictures, data, photocopies, etc. The profit motive works, let's use it to end corruption!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants, currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com

[MdmeX]

Corruption abounds, and in some ways we all contribute to it.

Last week when I was in Jam. - didn't I tip the Security @ the hotel to keep the same parking space for me? Yes, I certainly did - everyday that I was there.

[Karl]

Corruption abounds, and in some ways we all contribute to it.

Last week when I was in Jam. - didn't I tip the Security @ the hotel to keep the same parking space for me? Yes, I certainly did - everyday that I was there.

Yuh seit!

When me did a seh hit som years past, Mosiah tell me not im...mi mus speak fi mi self!