By Lynford Simpson,
Staff Report
JAMAICA's POST and Telecommunications department is owed about J$27.7 million for terminal dues and express mail services by ten countries including Japan and France.
Dr. Blossom O'Meally Nelson, Postmaster General, told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday that in the case of Antigua, which owed the most US$383,310 (J$17.2 million), the debt had been accumulating since 1988. She said this was despite repeated attempts to collect the outstanding sum.
The department, with the permission of Dr. Paul Robertson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has asked the Universal Postal Union Convention to intervene.
The Postmaster General explained terminal dues served to create a balance between incoming and outgoing mail. Where there is a greater volume of incoming mail, Jamaica incurs a greater cost for handling such mail, she said. A balance is created between countries dependent on the volume of outgoing mail.
According to Dr. O'Meally Nelson, this is the reason why remailing could become a problem as persons seeking to benefit from Jamaica's lower postal rates may want to remail to the United States.
"If our volume gets greater than the volume that comes in from the United States then we will have to pay them. That's how terminal mail comes about," Dr. O'Meally Nelson said.
The countries from whom Jamaica has been trying to collect are Antigua, Aruba, Bermuda, France, Grenada, Guyana, Japan, Panama, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago. Apart from Antigua, others owing significant sums are Panama US$62,000, Trinidad and Tobago US$35,000 and Venezuela US$89,000.
Dr. O'Meally Nelson said under the convention of the Universal Postal Union, Jamaica was not free to refuse mail from any member country.
"It's a very serious matter to refuse mail," she told Audley Shaw, PAC chairman, when he pressed her about the possibilities open to Jamaica to recover the outstanding amounts.
In a written response to queries from the Auditor General, the Post and Telecommunications department said that as a result of the intervention of the political directorate, Trinidad and Tobago had paid US$30,000 for terminal dues and Guyana US$2,500 for express mail.
