Shaw and Paulwell THE JAMAICA Labour Party yesterday called on Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Finance Minister Omar Davies to freeze the Intec (Information Technology Employment Creation) Fund.
It also wants the Government to suspend the work of the loan appraisal and approval committee of the technology-related loan fund, pending an urgent review of the management of the fund by the Auditor General of Jamaica.
In making the call, Opposition spokesman on finance Audley Shaw said the reason was the admission in Parliament on Tuesday by the Minister of Industry, Com-merce and Technology Phillip Paulwell that the loan committee and the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) failed to secure the required equity from NetServ, the overseas information technology firm before disbursing some $180 million to the company.
This, Mr. Shaw said, "was coupled with inadequate responses to my questions addressed to the Prime Minister which resulted in serious non-disclosure and raised serious questions about the precedent that appears to have been set concerning other recipients of loans under the Intec fund."
Mr Shaw had criticised the operation of the Intec Fund in Parliament in April of this year, charging that there was evidence that the information technology sector was attracting the wrong type of investors from abroad.
He said that one such investor had been previously earmarked for a US$5 million allocation from the Fund to open a call centre.
He had called on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance and Planning to suspend disbursements under the Fund and have it thoroughly investigated by the Auditor General because it was clear that "less experienced people" were mismanaging the Fund to the detriment of Jamaicans. He urged the Government to put in place credible technical consultants to ensure a sure-footed and corrupt-free administration of the Fund.
Last week, amid mounting pressure for investigation of the Government's dealing with Netserv, Minister Paulwell said he would ask the Auditor General to audit the Intec Fund immediately as the NIBJ placed Netserv, a recipient of $180 million under the Intec Fund, in receivership saying an investigation had determined that the operations were no longer viable.
Yesterday, Mr Shaw said that steps must be taken immediately as the issues of equity injection, adequate due diligence exercises on each recipients as well as prudential arrangements including proper collateral requirements must all be in place before any more funds are disbursed to any company from the $1.5 billion set aside for this programme.
He said that the Prime Minister, under whose portfolio NIBJ falls and the Finance Minister, who holds the fiduciary responsibility to protect the revenue of the country both have a duty to break their silence on this matter then take the necessary steps to "stop the wanton haemorrhaging of taxpayer funds through the mismanaged Intec Fund.
"The steps to freeze the Intec fund and suspend the work of the loan approval and appraisal committee are minimum requirements pending the outcome of the Auditor General's review which should be done with quick dispatch," Mr Shaw said.
