Henry

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderers of former Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) Chairman Douglas Chambers.

The PSOJ is offering the money through Crime Stop.

Chambers was slain last Friday outside the JUTC's Spanish Town depot in St Catherine.

The police have not yet made a breakthrough in the killing, but say they have been following several strong leads.

Condemn murder

Meanwhile, the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association of Jamaica has also joined in condemning the murder.

The association, for which Douglas was an auditor for the last 10 years, said it hoped the "martyrdom" would bring an end to corruption.

In Parliament yesterday, Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry reiterated that Chambers' death would in no way halt the planned redundancy exercise at the JUTC.

Henry said 485 employees, including some workers at the Portmore and Rockfort depots, would be issued with walking papers this afternoon.

Workers at the Spanish Town depot in St Catherine were issued with redundancy notices yesterday.

Hours to reconsider

Henry said an additional 65 drivers who declined to be trained for the single-operator programme have until midday today to reconsider their positions or be added to the redundancy list.

He further said the Government was trying to find a suitable chairman and president.

"Persons are being interviewed in respect of both positions and are likely to be in place quite soon," he said.

There were reports that Chambers and his workers had an acrimonious relationship arising from a number of contentious redundancies and restructuring exercises.

But Henry said those who were opposed to the current reshuffle at the JUTC should take issue with him and not the members of the board.

Paid to do nothing

According to the minister, the current board took over the company with a workforce of 2,743 individuals, while there was an average roll-out of some 288 buses.

He said this meant there were many workers being paid for doing nothing.

The workforce has now been trimmed to approximately 1,600, with the current ratio standing at five workers to one bus.

Henry reported yesterday that the JUTC has now cut its monthly losses from $150 million a month to approximately $70 million.