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Finsac’d! Lack of funds from Gov’t stalls enquiry report 
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
THE future of the Finsac Commission of Enquiry now rests squarely on whether the Government provides enough funding in the 2012/2013 Budget to complete the process.
A Jamaica Observer investigation into the state of affairs with the commission has revealed that currently, no work is being done by the commission, including that of completing the report of the enquiry, as there are no funds available.
The commission occupies an office in the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) building in New Kingston, but no one is employed there, except commissioners Worrick Bogle (chairman) and Charles Ross, as well as well as the commission’s secretary, former Bank of Jamaica executive Fernando DePeralto, all of whom are currently idled by the unavailability of funds.
The main problem is evidently the fact that the Ministry of Finance and Planning has made no funds available to the commission since January. The result is that work on the report has been halted, as there are no funds to pay the commission’s legal adviser, retired justice Henderson Downer, who has been assigned the job of preparing the report.
At the same, DePeralto’s secretary, who formerly kept the office going, resigned her job in March after she was not paid for two months.
Efforts to get a response from the commissioners, as well as DePeralto, over the past two weeks have been met with a wall of silence and a clumsy attempt to pass off responsibility from commissioner to commissioner and to the secretary.
Bogle, who was appointed chairman after the Supreme Court ruled in September 2010 that original chairman Justice Boyd Carey should be removed because of a conflict of interest, referred the Observer to DePeralto, who referred the newspaper back to Bogle. Contacted again, the chairman refused to respond, stating that a meeting of the commission was necessary prior to any public comment.
DePeralto took the same position when contacted again yesterday, saying that “the commissioners will have to meet and make a statement”. However, he admitted that the meeting cannot be set until Justice Downer returns from overseas.
The Observer has learnt that even when Downer returns very little change is likely, unless the commission can state how and when he will be paid for completing the report.
Former Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw, who appointed the commission, seemed perplexed by the situation when he told the Observer recently, “I can’t understand what is happening. I am hearing that the report will not be available before August.”
But even Shaw’s assumptions seem too ambitious because, as it now stands, it seems unlikely that a report will be ready before the end of the year.
The original plan by the commissioners was to have Justice Downer complete his draft report by April, the commissioners would review and release an interim report in May, and a final report in August. But with a five-month setback, due to the lack of funds, it seems a formidable challenge to have it ready by year-end, unless the Government makes an allocation in the 2012/2013 Budget, which would allow the commission to speed up the process.
Financial Secretary Wesley Hughes did not seem too optimistic when he informed the Public Accounts and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) in February that, despite a $14.2-million injection in the Second Supplementary Estimates for 2011/2012, the commission still needed additional funds to complete its work.
Dr Hughes indicated that the $33.5-million budgeted for the Financial Sector Adjustment Company Limited (Finsac) Commission of Enquiry, which had jumped to $48 million, could be increased even further.
To make things even more complicated, the instrument issued by the governor general establishing the commission allows for indefinite extensions to complete its work.
The commission of enquiry was appointed in October 2008 by the previous Government to unearth the details of the 1990s financial sector meltdown, and the role of Finsac in the recovery of the bad debts. It had been sitting since September 2009, but did not sit for much of 2010 as a result of the court action which eventually led to the disqualification of Carey. The enquiry ended in November 2011.
Finsac was established by the PNP Government in January 1997 to restore stability to Jamaica’s financial institutions after a number of local banks and companies went under in the ill-fated 1990s financial meltdown.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Fins...t#ixzz1uO4OI6HK
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
THE future of the Finsac Commission of Enquiry now rests squarely on whether the Government provides enough funding in the 2012/2013 Budget to complete the process.
A Jamaica Observer investigation into the state of affairs with the commission has revealed that currently, no work is being done by the commission, including that of completing the report of the enquiry, as there are no funds available.
The commission occupies an office in the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) building in New Kingston, but no one is employed there, except commissioners Worrick Bogle (chairman) and Charles Ross, as well as well as the commission’s secretary, former Bank of Jamaica executive Fernando DePeralto, all of whom are currently idled by the unavailability of funds.
The main problem is evidently the fact that the Ministry of Finance and Planning has made no funds available to the commission since January. The result is that work on the report has been halted, as there are no funds to pay the commission’s legal adviser, retired justice Henderson Downer, who has been assigned the job of preparing the report.
At the same, DePeralto’s secretary, who formerly kept the office going, resigned her job in March after she was not paid for two months.
Efforts to get a response from the commissioners, as well as DePeralto, over the past two weeks have been met with a wall of silence and a clumsy attempt to pass off responsibility from commissioner to commissioner and to the secretary.
Bogle, who was appointed chairman after the Supreme Court ruled in September 2010 that original chairman Justice Boyd Carey should be removed because of a conflict of interest, referred the Observer to DePeralto, who referred the newspaper back to Bogle. Contacted again, the chairman refused to respond, stating that a meeting of the commission was necessary prior to any public comment.
DePeralto took the same position when contacted again yesterday, saying that “the commissioners will have to meet and make a statement”. However, he admitted that the meeting cannot be set until Justice Downer returns from overseas.
The Observer has learnt that even when Downer returns very little change is likely, unless the commission can state how and when he will be paid for completing the report.
Former Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw, who appointed the commission, seemed perplexed by the situation when he told the Observer recently, “I can’t understand what is happening. I am hearing that the report will not be available before August.”
But even Shaw’s assumptions seem too ambitious because, as it now stands, it seems unlikely that a report will be ready before the end of the year.
The original plan by the commissioners was to have Justice Downer complete his draft report by April, the commissioners would review and release an interim report in May, and a final report in August. But with a five-month setback, due to the lack of funds, it seems a formidable challenge to have it ready by year-end, unless the Government makes an allocation in the 2012/2013 Budget, which would allow the commission to speed up the process.
Financial Secretary Wesley Hughes did not seem too optimistic when he informed the Public Accounts and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) in February that, despite a $14.2-million injection in the Second Supplementary Estimates for 2011/2012, the commission still needed additional funds to complete its work.
Dr Hughes indicated that the $33.5-million budgeted for the Financial Sector Adjustment Company Limited (Finsac) Commission of Enquiry, which had jumped to $48 million, could be increased even further.
To make things even more complicated, the instrument issued by the governor general establishing the commission allows for indefinite extensions to complete its work.
The commission of enquiry was appointed in October 2008 by the previous Government to unearth the details of the 1990s financial sector meltdown, and the role of Finsac in the recovery of the bad debts. It had been sitting since September 2009, but did not sit for much of 2010 as a result of the court action which eventually led to the disqualification of Carey. The enquiry ended in November 2011.
Finsac was established by the PNP Government in January 1997 to restore stability to Jamaica’s financial institutions after a number of local banks and companies went under in the ill-fated 1990s financial meltdown.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Fins...t#ixzz1uO4OI6HK
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