Headlines:
| Fiscal discrepancies discovered in Cuban light bulb initiative |
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| Tuesday, 23 October 2007 | |
 The Auditor General and Contractor General have been
called in to investigate the expenditure of $114 million and the commitment to
pay another $162 million in connection with the light bulb distribution project
carried out with the help of the Cuban Government.The Minister in charge of the Telecommunications sector Clive Mullings made the announcement in the House of Representatives Tuesday as he raised issues about the conduct of the programme and one of the ministers associated with it. Under the programme some four million florescent bulbs were to be distributed as part of an effort to encourage energy saving habits among Jamaicans. The bulbs were provided free of cost by the Cuban government with teams of Cuban and Jamaican volunteers drafted to distribute and install them. For its part, the Jamaican government would bear the cost for shipping, clearing, storing and transporting the bulbs. But as he rose to appraise the House of the year old project, the Minister now in charge of it made clear his concerns. "It is therefore causes me great alarm to discover that since taking up my post as the Minister of Energy and Telecommunications that the government through the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica had already paid out $114 million for the implementation of the project," said Mr. Mullings. "Indeed it would be noted that $85 million or 75 per cent of that amount went to a company called Universal Management and Development Company Limited for various services in connection with the implementation of the project," And that is not Clive Mullings' only concern. The Minister said the first of these companies, Universal Management and Development Company Limited, is not registered with the National Contracts Commission. There is no evidence that proper tendering procedures were followed in the award of the contract. In fact, there is no evidence of a contract with payments made on the presentation of invoices approved by a monitoring Committee headed by then state Minister Kern Spencer Indeed the Ministry has since discovered that some payments are outstanding. "These invoices if paid would bring the total expenditure and this is not including expenses financed through Members of Parliament and their social economic support programme, to $276,568,380.90. This for light bulbs given to us free of cost by the Cuban government and distributed by local and Cuban volunteers," he continued. Mr. Mullings said the Attorney General has also been asked to advise whether the letters of commitment signed by Mr. Spencer constitute a binding commitment on the part of the government. In the interim, the Ministry has instructed that no further payments be made until the probe is conducted and Cabinet makes a decision. |