THE RECEIVER/MANAGER of NetServ, Mr. John Lee, presented an interim report on the company within a short time after the start of his receivership. When he gave the interim report Mr. Lee promised to provide a valuation of the equipment and furniture in the company and its status as a going concern in his next report.
Given the alacrity with which the first report was presented we would have thought that a more comprehensive report on the company would have been presented by now.
Large sums of public money were paid to this company and we do not think the country should have to wait too long to know what has happened to these funds. Specifically we would expect Mr. Lee to say whether or not he found furniture and equipment to a value of what the operators of NetServ say they spent on these purchases.
And what has happened to the promise to restart NetServ on a phased basis under the management of Mr. Lee? Nothing more has been heard of the plan to recall some of the workforce on a phased basis.
Since the problems at NetServ surfaced there have been other reports of problems at other telecommunications companies, which were beneficiaries of the Intech Fund. Just a week ago Teleservices Jamaica Ltd laid off more than a quarter of the 825 persons in its workforce. Also last week we were informed that the project to train students in programming and other aspects of information technology had been cut back because of cash flow problems.
Nothing has been heard from the Minister of Technology, Mr. Philip Paulwell, in recent weeks, nor has there been any report on the progress of the audit by the Auditor-General into the Intech Fund.
Important issues of public policy and accountability hinge on what the investigations into this sorry affair reveal.
The public cannot be satisfied by assurances from the Prime Minister that he was giving Minister Paulwell a clean bill of health over his handling of the matter. Vast sums of public money were paid out with the promise that the IT sector would create 40,000 jobs primarily for young people. That is now proving to be a vain hope and the public has a right to know what went wrong and why.
