Monteith

Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Senator Noel Monteith, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education and Youth, has admitted that one of the reasons for the delay in the $500 million revolving loan funds for teachers was that Cabinet was seeking clarification on the contract award process.

The contract to administer the $500 million fund was awarded to Capital and Credit Merchant Bank, of which Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Maria Jones, is a board member.

Need clarification

"Because of the nature of things these days, they (Cabinet) wanted to have clarification on whether or not she had influenced the process," Senator Monteith told The Gleaner on Monday.

He quickly added: "Being a member (of the board), she declared interest and did not participate in any discussion with Capital and Credit Merchant Bank."

When contacted, Mrs. Jones declined to discuss the matter, noting that it was a Cabinet matter. "From the beginning I stayed away from the process. I did not even know when the process was taking place," she said. "I did not comment then and I am not going to comment now."

In 2005, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced at the People's National Party's annual conference that the Government would be establishing a $500 million revolving loan fund to upgrade the qualifications of the country's roughly 17,000 teachers who are without a first degree.

This was in keeping with a recommendation made by the Task Force on Education.

However, the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) has been promised the loan fund on three different occasions: last October and November and January of this year.

But teachers are yet to receive this benefit which was part of the salaries and fringe benefits agreement signed between the Government and the JTA last October.

Deregistration

The JTA reported last week that more than 100 educators had been deregistered from tertiary institutions for failure to pay tuition fees. The association attributed this de-registration to the fact that teachers were expecting to receive the funds and had, therefore, registered for various programmes.

Senator Monteith said the committee which is reviewing the revolving loan fund also inquired whether the Students' Loan Bureau could administer the fund. However, he noted that when the contract was put to tender, the bureau did not express an interest.

Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson said last week that she was awaiting a response from Solicitor General, Michael Hilton, to clarify issues on which Cabinet was undecided.

Senator Monteith reiterated that the funds were available for disbursement once Cabinet was satisfied that the contract award process was transparent.

"I don't foresee any problem once Cabinet is properly informed," the Minister of State told The Gleaner.

JTA President Hopeton Henry said the teachers were still eagerly awaiting the funds, and that once the process was transparent, his organisation did not have a problem with the involvement of the bank in the disbursement process.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com