Glenda Anderson and Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporters
PRINCIPALS AT a number of high schools across the island are now desperately trying to locate former national table tennis champion, Michael Hyatt, who reportedly collected millions of dollars to provide their schools with computers but failed to deliver the goods.
Already five schools have confirmed with The Sunday Gleaner that they ordered nearly 150 top of the line computers, and made downpayments totalling several million dollars to eJam IT Solutions, a company operated by the former champion who they have not been able to locate for several months.
MADE DEPOSIT
While some of these schools have received portions of their orders, others such as Happy Grove High School in Portland have received nothing at all. Principal Lauriston Lindsay said the school made a deposit of $1 million to eJam in April of this year for 30 computers and he has received neither the computers nor a refund of the money.
"We made contact with him (Hyatt) and he sent us an e-mail to the extent that he was having difficulties with foreign ex-change, and that we needed to appreciate the fact that the dollar had slid, and all that," Mr. Lindsay said.
When the computers did not arrive for the new school term (September) as was agreed, some of the affected schools who also did business with Mr. Hyatt met to discuss the matter.
MEETING
"We got in touch with the Ministry of Education and they invited us to a meeting in September. They basically asked us if we had got anything (computers or software). They asked about the procedure we had followed; whether an estimate was done, whether we got a proposal, which we had all done.
"Then they asked about the persons who had signed the contract. Then we were told that they would be following it up and they would make a report to the auditors.
"Right now there are auditors going around to all the schools basically just looking for similarities with the signatures," he said.
Officials at the Ministry of Education have been tight-lipped about the situation. They have refused to disclose the number of schools affected and the exact figure involved. However, the Fraud Squad of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) confirmed on the weekend that there was a five-month-old warrant currently out for Mr. Hyatt's arrest involving one commercial school and that they were expecting a file from the Ministry of Education concerning the public schools shortly.
"We have a report of one incident so far from a private commercial institution and a substantial amount of money was involved," said an officer at the Fraud Squad. "The Ministry of Education should be making their report shortly."
The officer further explained that they too have been trying to locate Mr. Hyatt but they have been unsuccessful.
In January some 17 newly upgraded secondary schools received $75 million in funding under the Ministry of Education's Secondary Enhance-ment Programme.
The 17 high schools benefiting were: Mona, Merlene Ottey, Ruseas, Haile Selassie, Jonathan Grant, Carron Hall, Sydney Pagon, Knockalva Agriculture, Charlie Smith, Garvey Maceo, Albert Town, Aabuthnott Gallimore, Fair Prospect, Mile Gully, Bridgeport, St. Anne's and Happy Grove. They received between $2.5 million and $5 million each.
ALLOCATED FUNDS
This is the second year that funds have been allocated under the programme. Principals have responsibility for how the funds are spent, but are required to give an annual report and are monitored by auditors from the Ministry.
A worried group of principals and administrators at the schools are concerned that the Ministry of Education would hold them responsible for the millions that they paid out to the IT company but they are adamant that eJAM was on the Ministry's list of 'preferred' companies with which schools are encouraged to do business.
Bursar at the Fair Prospect High School in Portland, Winnifred Allen, told The Sunday Gleaner that they were among the schools who ordered and got 21 computers some time in June "after we pressed him (Hyatt) and told him that we had CXCs coming up. The only thing we didn't get were some software that he had promised," she said.
Representatives from the Bridgeport High School in Portmore, St. Catherine, confirmed that they had ordered more than 30 computers from Mr. Hyatt, however, none of them has been delivered.
At Aabuthnott Gallimore High School in Alexandria, St. Ann, Principal Geoffrey Sharpe confirmed that the school was still awaiting the 27 computers which were ordered in April. He refused to give details on the amount paid in deposit on the units. "It's something the (school) board is treating and until the matter has been fully sorted out then I would prefer to say nothing," he said.
The school heads say efforts to track the company through its Ocho Rios and Miami offices were unsuccessful. They say they were also unable to reach Mr. Hyatt by e-mail or telephone.
SCHOOLS STILL WAITING
Adelle Brown, deputy chief educational officer in the Ministry, with responsibility for the programme, confirmed the situation of schools still waiting for computers ordered to be delivered.
"Some have received portions, others have not received any at all. All which have not received are for the same company," she said.
Meanwhile The Sunday Gleaner attempts to contact Mr. Hyatt over the past two weeks were unsuccessful. But in June of this year, Mr. Hyatt told The Sunday Gleaner that he failed to deliver 25 computers to a St. Catherine company in July 2001. The company had given him a downpayment of $500,000.
LOSSES
He further said that his inability to honour his business obligations was as a direct result of losses incurred after undertaking a $4.2 million community project in East Kingston called COMPUSKILLS. This project is in the constituency of Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology.
