Cant understand how people complain about cabinet makeup

[PeeJay]

When even our prime minister makes less than 90k Us per year...wow

[Willi]

So wait, now USA is our pay reference? How much qualified people in America don't mek $90? People in the South with dat kinda salary live like royalty.

Jamaican people earn like the US people? What is their per capita income compared to ours?

This US reference thing always amazes me. Is like the JAAA accreditation, saying that it costs US$15 in America, so US$12 in Jamaica is a bargain.

ROTFLMAO

[Willi]

Why yuh care bout cabinet anyway?
Look at the "fine" jobs Cabinets have done in Jamaica for 50 years...

Sigh, dem VASTLY overpaid.

[Lazie]

When even our prime minister makes less than 90k Us per year...wow

uummm ... where was that logic when the size of previous cabinet was being called a breakfront? The PM then was making J$4 plus ... Portia is making more than J$7. I guess ppl will say anything not to question the higher order.

[Me]

Why should she make more than that? She making in the low range of US Governor pay.

[Muadib]

How much Police and Teachah and Nurse mek ?

Yuh have sense ?

[World Fan]

More fake licences hitting Jca's streets
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...reets_11775280
More fake licences hitting Jca's streets

Thousands of permits stolen under tax officials noses, says traffic chief

BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Sunday Observer senior reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Print this page Email A Friend!
Tweet

HEAD of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's traffic division, Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis wants the Senate Committee on National Policy Issues to summon three top-ranking officials of the Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ) to provide answers about what he said is the ongoing "theft of government papers" by persons employed to the entity.

Lewis shocked the Senate committee with his demand which stemmed from his announcement in the Chamber at Gordon House moments before, that thousands of motor vehicle titles, licence disks, certificates and more had been stolen from the licensing authority and sold illegally.

"Tax Administration of Jamaica has to be brought into this loop and brought here, as they are responsible for a number of documents for motor vehicles to include the production of driver's licences," he said.

He revealed that over the past five months, 6,000 motor vehicle certificates, 2,000 motor vehicle titles, 300 licence disks and 5,000 test link sheets have been stolen from vaults at TAJ's King Street headquarters.

In the meantime, he said police intelligence suggests that the identities of "a lot of persons are being given to criminals from the tax office".

"Our information is that the information is being given from inside the tax offices at Constant Spring and King Street," Lewis told the committee.

He is, however, particularly annoyed by the reluctance of individuals employed to the entity to give information to the police.

"What is happening now is that a lot of coverup is taking place. Superintendent Cornwall 'Bigga' Ford who is investigating the matter is having a helluva time to get co-operation, matter of a fact, he's getting no co-operation," he told the committee.

According to Lewis "a number of persons were arrested, but because they (TAJ employees) were reluctant to give information the police had to arrest them on a lesser charge".

"So we are talking about senior persons (refusing to give evidence), we have government employees refusing to give statements in a criminal investigation and this is theft of government papers that we are talking about," he said.

Lewis said raids carried out at the King Street Tax Offices on June 7 this year resulted in the nabbing of the "chief mastermind who was inside doing transactions".

"He was held with blank certificates of titles, blank insurance certificates and blank cover notes. I can only conclude that King Street and Constant Spring TAJ are running a mini examination depot," he told the Committee.

Friday, in response to Lewis's revelations Government senator Lambert Brown said the persons who withheld information from the police, "should be reported for dereliction of duty".

"It warrants strong disciplinary action," the trade unionist said.

In the meantime, Lewis noted that an additional 10,000 fictitious driver's licences have made their way into the hands of unscrupulous Jamaican drivers following the theft at the TAJ.

SSP Lewis said in June of this year the Tax Administration wrote to the police asking for its assistance in nabbing the persons with the stolen items in their possession.

"The number of fictitious driver's licences, including a number of driver's licence that are also cloned is like manna falling from heaven, or in colloquial terms, enough to 'stone dog'," he said adding that "these materials are being stolen from these offices long ago".

"We have documents here to prove. From as far as 2009 we have been investigating documents stolen from TAJ offices at King's Street and Constant Spring.

"So far one scammer was recently held in Montego Bay with ten fictitious licences with the same information but ten different photographs," Lewis told the committee.

He said the selling of fictitious driver's licences by some individuals employed to these agencies has become a highly profitable trade.

"If yuh (person 'buying') can help yuhself it's $50,000 for the counterfeit driver's licence, but if yuh cyaan help yuhself — meaning yuh cyaan read nor write — it's $100,000. Most, if not all the fake licences have Kingston addresses but the drivers are mainly from St James, Westmoreland, St Catherine and Kingston," he told the committee.

The Traffic Division head, while making it clear that his disclosure was not intended to "embarrass anybody or any organisation" said the police were simply trying to "find solutions to make the system more accountable and transparent".

"Over the years we have been grappling with the issue of integrity within the driver's licence system, however, in recent times, fraudulent driver's licences are being detected on a regular basis. We are cognisant of the problem and the magnitude. It requires collaborative efforts of the major stakeholders in arresting this problem," he pointed out.

"It is a fact that the process of issuing driver's licences at the examinations depots islandwide needs to be tightened, however, this requires a number of stringent measures to be put in place to prevent corruption and to prevent persons from being seen as corrupt," Lewis said.

The Division has, in the meantime, proposed that the Island Traffic Authority employ an integrity screening officer who would operate in a manner similar to the Jamaica Constabulary Force polygraph officer.

"All certifying examiners must be polygraphed, as also the screening officer. All certified examiners must be issued a unique number for identification and for future reference in respect of the driver's licence issued," Lewis said.

Other suggestions are that all certificates of competence issued must be faxed to the Inland Revenue Department and the Traffic Headquarters until the system becomes fully computerised. Furthermore, Lewis said, all persons involved in the processing and storing of driver's licences in the Inland Revenue Department and the Tax Administration of Jamaica Offices must be polygraphed.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1yjDsLSOQ
__________________________________________________ _____________________

According to Green, the Military Intelligence Unit (MIU) was initially apprehensive about passing information on to Kingfish because "it didn't trust the police to properly handle its intelligence, but this doesn't exist now".
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead4.html
Kingfish 'killed'
Published: Sunday | June 24, 2012 4 Comments
GREEN
GREEN

Police task force quietly disbanded

Durrant Pate, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Operation Kingfish, the much-heralded police anti-crime initiative launched in 2004 and mandated to go after the major players in the organised crime world, has been quietly disbanded and its functions transferred to other units within the police force.

The dismantling of the task force reportedly started in 2008 after the unit was given national commendations for leading probes which led to the arrest and conviction of reputed criminal dons, including Donald 'Zekes' Phipps of Matthews Lane and Joel Andem of the Gideon Warriors.

Outgoing Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green last week confirmed that Kingfish has been disbanded and was at a loss when asked why the plug was pulled.

"I don't know why it got disbanded, but it has been quietly disbanded and no longer exists ... . It was never announced or formulated as a closure," stated Green.

He argued that politics and jealousy played a part in the demise of Operation Kingfish, which was an intelligence-driven initiative, involving hand-picked members of the local police force working closely with their counterparts in the United Kingdom and the United States.

HOTLINE STILL OPERATIONAL

According to Green, the only remnant of Operation Kingfish is "the hotline, which is still operational, still manned and generating results".

Green pointed out that the dismantling of the anti-crime task force coincided with the change in administration from the People's National Party government, which gave birth to Operation Kingfish, to the Jamaica Labour Party administration.

He said the demise was incremental, with four units within the police force benefiting from the legacy of Operation Kingfish.

Green said: "The first move was to bring Kingfish under the National Intelligence Branch; second, the investigative element was transferred to the Transnational Crime and Narcotics Division; third, the task force was splintered into two separate departments.

"The investigative arm was then broken up even further and now forms the core basis of the Kingston and St Andrew Major Investigative Task Force, and elements of Kingfish were transferred to Mobile Reserve."

He said the intelligence arm of Operation Kingfish remains in the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), but it is no longer specifically coordinating intelligence on criminal gangs.

National Security Minister Peter Bunting confirmed that Kingfish had been sliced up for sometime now.

"It was scrapped a long time ago - certainly before I took over as minister, and may even have before my predecessor's (Dwight Nelson) time," Bunting told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday.

VICTIM OF FORMER ADMINISTRATION

The national security minister said that while in opposition he noticed that there was talk about the NIB and Kingfish, but gradually the Kingfish was dropped.

"But I really can't recall any official release about its discontinuation," said Bunting.

According to Bunting, while no reasons have been given for its termination, Kingfish may simply have been the victim of the policy of a former administration.

He added that Kingfish may have been a victim of its own success.

Meanwhile, outgoing ACP Green admitted that Operation Kingfish also suffered from internal jealousy, as the unit was being credited for a lot of drug busts and bringing down some of the country's most feared criminals when much of the work wasn't done by Kingfish operatives.

"There was jealousy because the Kingfish name was always out there, even when Kingfish officers didn't do the work. There were local police doing the work," stated Green.

He told The Sunday Gleaner that these hard-working police officers were not being credited for their work, with Kingfish receiving all the glory, and this caused a lot of disquiet within the force.

JEALOUSY AMONG LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

Green added that there was also some amount of jealousy by law-enforcement agencies outside the police force.

According to Green, the Military Intelligence Unit (MIU) was initially apprehensive about passing information on to Kingfish because "it didn't trust the police to properly handle its intelligence, but this doesn't exist now".

He added: "We now have a better working relationship with MIU."

Green also disclosed that the recently launched Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force (MOCA) is not a replacement for Operation Kingfish. He said while Kingfish targeted criminals and criminal gangs committing violent crimes, MOCA targets criminals and their economic proceeds.

That means that there remains a gap left by Operation Kingfish, which needs to be filled.

Green argued that there needs to be a top-tier investigative body, highly ethical with good integrity, similar to America's Federal Bureau of Investigation, to fill the void left by Operation Kingfish.