WESTERN BUREAU:
J.C. HUTCHINSON, Member of Parliament for St. Elizabeth North-West and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman for Agriculture, on Saturday lashed out against the receipt book system of the proposed Praedial Larceny Act.
He was speaking at a farmers' forum at Pedro Plains Primary School, St. Elizabeth.
Mr. Hutchinson's criticism, came on the heels of threats made last week by Roger Clarke, the Agriculture Minister, to expose Members of Parliament who do not support the proposed act. The Praedial Larceny Act seeks to abolish the established carrier's licence required for farmers in favour of a Jamaica Agricultural Society receipt book.
"At this point in time, anybody who is transporting goods should have a certificate or what you call a traveller's licence," Mr. Hutchinson said. "What they would like to do now is to change the certificate and bring in a receipt book. The only difference between the receipt book and the present certificate is that it is going to have the name 'JAS'; it is going to have the number of the farmer and the cost of the produce."
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WITH NEW SYSTEM
Citing some likely scenarios under the proposed receipt book system, Mr. Hutchinson argued that this new system would only create 'legitimate thieves'.
"How are we going to know that all these farmers are legitimate farmers? You are going to legalise some of the same tief," Mr. Hutchinson said. "You can have a situation right within your district where you have a person who you know as a tief and he goes next door or down the road and tief five goats. He comes to his yard and puts the five goats in his yard and when the JAS officer comes, he comes and registers him as a farmer. If you are going to register a farmer, you have to find out if he is a legitimate farmer. The act that is coming does not speak of how they are going to verify that he is a legitimate farmer."
Also, Mr. Hutchinson was concerned about the idea of the paying of fines by farmers who do not issue receipts. He said that this meant that gifts from a farmer to a friend would come into question under the new receipt-book proposal, which would not only charge the receiver of the gift under suspicion of stealing due the absence of a receipt, but fine the farmer some $250,000 for not issuing a receipt.
He charged the JAS with creating a band-aid for the praedial larceny situation, stating that they are seeking to create short-cuts that do not effect long-term changes.
"What they are trying to do is to catch the thief on the highway," Mr. Hutchinson said. "What we need to do is look at the communities and see if we can come together as a farming organisation."
He said he was not against the Praedial Larceny Act but would rather see some of the obvious loopholes blocked.
"I am not against the Praedial Larceny Act," he said. "I want to see the Praedial Larceny Act but I want to know that it is an Act that has teeth."
