Paulwell (left) and Campbell (right) I suppose it's alright that I felt a bit like a turkey for much of this week because it is the season to be merry after all.
You see, I've listened to Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell explain away the English Sports or Jamaica Call Centres mess and I couldn't help thinking that I'd missed something.
A helpful Junior Minister Colin Campbell clarified the whole situation for me yesterday and I felt a lot better, knowing that I'm not the one that has been fattened up just to be taken for a "short ride".
Jamaica Call Centres is a subsidiary of English Sports, which has been here for about five years. It is expected to roll out 5,000 new call centre seats over a three-year period and one of the principals of English Sports is under indictment in the US on money laundering charges as a result of the tough offshore betting stance of the US.
Mr. Paulwell, has come under fire for the terms of his loan, dealing with a company that fell behind in paying statutory duties and even his ridiculous attempt to say he'd "cancelled" the loan.
Perhaps, he was too busy trying to sort out the mess he has set in train to call me back this week. It might just be that it was actually Mr. Campbell that dealt with this sad saga, so it was the Junior Minister who felt the urge to respond more fully.
First things first. Who do they think they are fooling?
After a botched US$1.5 million loan, we have now decided that the INTECH project, with $2 billion set aside this year will provide "turnkey" services or ready to operate factories.
Isn't that kind of a basic change to make after just one loan? And more importantly, if you have a fixed and floating debenture over all of the assets of Jamaica Call Centre and English Sports, why the sudden panic? Mr. Campbell explained that the change is really nothing to do with the last problems, it is something they had identified on another project. The projects were taking too long to get off the ground and providing ready to use space would be much quicker.
So we've decided we are providing the space and equipment rather than the cash. Not bad after nine months of work.
The INTECH Project has various components such as a yet-to-be-started, still-to-be-finalised, almost-ready-to-launch venture capital fund. Some $750 million of INTECH money has been set aside for infrastructure work. This was where Jamaica Call Centres got its US$1.5 million or $64 million.
Do you realise that this loan was the first from the entire INTECH fund? It was agreed in July when Mr. Campbell and a bunch of bureaucrats "visited" Pennsylvania and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Can you believe it? The money was disbursed within a month. At least Jamaica Call Centres can't complain about that too much, I've heard hoteliers lament at how difficult it can be to get cash out of the state.
That wonderfully diligent body, the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ), was the gatekeeper for the funds. I'm told that they didn't actually want to disburse the cash but a certain executive was hoping to be retained in a key position and was told in no uncertain terms that it wouldn't happen unless, money was moved.
Of course this is just hearsay and not admissible in a court of law. Mr. Campbell did say that harsh words may have flowed but that was his job, "to get things done".
So what about the Ministry loan committee that oversees such loans? Surely someone there objected to a US$1.5 million, interest free loan to a new subsidiary? Mr. Campbell reminded me that Jamaica Call Centres had to put down three or four months rent money as a deposit before the cash was disbursed.
With the likes of Permanent Secretary Fay Sylvester on the committee it must have been a well scrutinised loan. Not to mention the NIBJ.
Mr. Campbell explained that there were some preliminary concerns, procedural stuff. No certificate of incorporation for the company, no minutes to the board giving the company powers to borrow the cash, basic stuff like that.
Of course all this was put in place and the loan agreed. But the Kingston Free Zone operation is nowhere to be seen but will be humming by early February.
Great news. What about the others? Sticky question.
Baytel, the one local operation, refuses to give a fixed and floating debenture over all its assets so is struggling to get its new building to expand. So would I if the terms of my loan can be changed after I'd got it.
Netsurf, the Trinidad hopeful, is soon to be operating out of the former Mutual Life building. More will be said on that front in another article.
So how much money from the $2 billion INTECH fund has been disbursed so far? Was it surprising that I couldn't get a straight answer? We may soon get some sort of a cleverly crafted response in the House to questions on the subject by Opposition Finance Spokesman Audley Shaw, who's hit the bull's eye again.
Mr. Campbell did say that of the more than 100 applications, about $1 billion has been "approved".
It appears Mr. Paulwell and his crew, really did inherit Dr. Paul Robertson's infamous investment pipeline. Only this time we are having problem spending our cash.
As for Jamaica Call Centres, I find it hard to believe the classic "it was an oversight" excuse from management when it comes to English Sports' paying statutory duties. As a Free Zone company the only funds it should have paid to Government were in fact its statutory duties because it doesn't pay taxes.
I can't help thinking that the concerns I have aired in the past about an obvious lack of experience and understanding of the sector, ring true. We have billions to spend, some great minds in the field in Jamaica and overseas and we have left it to youthful Ministers, learning on the job, making crucial, bad decisions.
