Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

HOLNESS

A high-level enquiry has been ordered by Education Minister Andrew Holness into the spending of the initial $5 billion allotted to the Education Transformation process.

Holness told The Gleaner that he expects the report, which he plans to take to Parliament, to be on his desk by Friday.

A highly placed source in the ministry told The Gleaner that the minister ordered the enquiry because he was not pleased with the initial information he has received regarding the expenditure.

Irregularity question

However, when asked if he ordered a probe because of suspected irregularity, Holness was coy. The minister said he just asked for a report.

"My notions right now are irrelevant. I need a report. They are working on it right now. I suspect that I should have it very shortly. And when I do get the report then I will go to Parliament and make a statement to the nation about the status of transformation."

Holness also said that the report would be analysed along with any other knowledge that he may glean, and then the necessary actions taken.

However, the minister did say that he ordered the report to bring him up to date with the project and also to ensure that the country was getting value for money.

While not divulging the details of what he has learnt about the multibillion-dollar venture so far, Holness told The Gleaner that he asked the relevant officers the same questions our news team was asking him.

Chief among the questions are: how was the money spent, andon what?

The source also revealed that several individuals have already been grilled by a panel about the expenditure under the programme that has a mandate to modernise the education sector.

Frank Weeple, executive director of the Education Transformation

Unit in the Ministry of Education, told The Gleaner that $4.7 billion has been spent so far. Weeple is confident that the country has received value for money.

Infrastructure

He told our news team that 87 per cent of the initial $5 billion, which was injected into the programme to kick-start the transformation, was spent on infrastructure development. "To date $4.1 billion has been spent on facilities and infrastructure," he said.

He also revealed that "6,515 new spaces have been built so far", and that eight schools are currently under construction.

Weeple also pointed out that a few schools have been taken off the shift system. But, he admitted that the majority of schools that use the system are yet to be addressed.

"We started taking schools off the shift system, there are 124 (schools), we've taken the first eight off and we are now in the process of planning to remove the others," he said.