Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
PARLIAMENT'S PUBLIC Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday rapped the Water and Housing Ministry for its employment of a consultant for a 10-month period without permission from the Ministry of Finance.
The consultant was employed at the Jamaica Mortgage Bank (JMB) to raise overseas bonds targeting Jamaicans living overseas.
Managing director of the state-owned bank, Milverton Reynolds, told the PAC that the JMB had not received permission from the Ministry of Finance to proceed with the employment.
"The Ministry of Finance indicated to the Mortgage Bank that this is something which we ought not to continue to pursue at the time, and that is the reason why the contract was terminated and a new contract was not entered into," he said.
PAC Chairman Audley Shaw described the action as a waste of money.
"... The point is, had you consulted with the Ministry of Finance before you got a consultant on board to pursue the issue, you would not have spent $6 million paying a consultant to do something that the Minister of Finance later told you can't be done," he scolded.
"It is an absolute waste of money!" he criticised the Housing Ministry.
In response, Genefa Hibbert, Permanent Secretary in the ministry, said the consultant was initially contracted to the bank for three months.
However, the agreement continued long after this, under the same terms and conditions.
She said it was hoped that the Ministry of Finance would have approved the contract, but this was not done.
NO EXCUSE
Robert Martin, deputy financial secretary at the Ministry of Finance, said that the bank should not have employed the consultant without the knowledge of the ministry, as this would have meant competing with the Government's efforts to raise bonds in other areas.
Mr. Reynolds, however, argued that as a result of the engagement of the consultant, the bank had enough data to use if the Government ever reconsidered entering in such venture at a later stage.
Mr. Martin rebutted that the ministry already had available expertise within the ministry.
"The expertise in raising overseas bond financing resides in the Ministry of Finance, so there was absolutely no need to employ a consultant to garner this information," he said.
