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<span style="font-weight: bold">Gov't says coffers empty; approaches Chinese for funding </span>
BY RHOMA TOMLINSON, Observer writer [email protected]
Thursday, July 02, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Government says it simply has no money to build the $1.2-billion courthouse/judicial complex it promised to Manchester last year.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Robert Rainford, told lay magistrates in the parish last week, however, that though Government's coffers are empty, the new courthouse is on a list of "priorities" his ministry has submitted to the Chinese government for funding.
Rainford was addressing the annual general meeting of the Manchester Lay Magistrates Association at the Golf View Hotel last Thursday.
He told the Observer afterwards that his ministry had submitted a proposal for US$50 million to the government of China, through the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
"We made the submission in March and we're expecting to hear something very positive pretty soon," he said, adding that the Manchester complex was high on the list, as lands had already been identified and final arrangements were being made to secure it.
But a disappointed Jean Anderson, president of the Manchester Lay Magistrates Association, said she had "expected to hear better news". She said, however, that she was glad to hear that the courthouse was not completely off the drawing board.
"We all know there's a crisis in financing. At least he gave us a glimmer [of hope] for the problem. I'm glad he told us the delay is due to financing. But we'll be having dialogue at a future date," she said.
News of the new courthouse complex broke last February when then permanent secretary Carol Palmer announced that Government would be building a multi-courthouse complex to serve the southern region. The 122,000-square-ft property was to be based just outside Mandeville, and would house, among other things, a resident magistrate's court, a gun court and circuit court for Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon.
The courthouse, which should form part of Government's reform of the justice system, is expected to revolutionise court proceedings in the southern region, especially in Manchester, which is still holding court in its 189-year-old courthouse.
BY RHOMA TOMLINSON, Observer writer [email protected]
Thursday, July 02, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Government says it simply has no money to build the $1.2-billion courthouse/judicial complex it promised to Manchester last year.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Robert Rainford, told lay magistrates in the parish last week, however, that though Government's coffers are empty, the new courthouse is on a list of "priorities" his ministry has submitted to the Chinese government for funding.
Rainford was addressing the annual general meeting of the Manchester Lay Magistrates Association at the Golf View Hotel last Thursday.
He told the Observer afterwards that his ministry had submitted a proposal for US$50 million to the government of China, through the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
"We made the submission in March and we're expecting to hear something very positive pretty soon," he said, adding that the Manchester complex was high on the list, as lands had already been identified and final arrangements were being made to secure it.
But a disappointed Jean Anderson, president of the Manchester Lay Magistrates Association, said she had "expected to hear better news". She said, however, that she was glad to hear that the courthouse was not completely off the drawing board.
"We all know there's a crisis in financing. At least he gave us a glimmer [of hope] for the problem. I'm glad he told us the delay is due to financing. But we'll be having dialogue at a future date," she said.
News of the new courthouse complex broke last February when then permanent secretary Carol Palmer announced that Government would be building a multi-courthouse complex to serve the southern region. The 122,000-square-ft property was to be based just outside Mandeville, and would house, among other things, a resident magistrate's court, a gun court and circuit court for Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon.
The courthouse, which should form part of Government's reform of the justice system, is expected to revolutionise court proceedings in the southern region, especially in Manchester, which is still holding court in its 189-year-old courthouse.
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