TPDCo to face PAC grilling over projects, hiring

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Jennifer Griffith, and senior executives from the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) are expected to provide an explanation to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today on the criteria used to select a number of projects under the multimillion-dollar Tourism Improvement Programme (TIP).

The technocrats may be called on to furnish the information as they did not provide the evidence when asked by auditors from the Auditor General’s Department who carried out a performance review of the agency’s project management and governance arrangements.

In her audit report tabled in Parliament in March, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis said that despite requests from her department, TPDCo did not provide evidence of the criteria used to select the projects.

TPDCo manages the TIP, which spans the 63 constituencies and involves several municipal corporations and licensed agencies.

Under TIP, each constituency was allocated $3 million annually to undertake projects, which was subsequently increased to $4 million during the financial year 2019-20.

The auditor general highlighted that the records of TPDCo showed that 315 contracts valued at $1.078 billion were executed over the period 2014-15 to 2019-20.

In her report to Parliament, Monroe Ellis said that she reviewed 60 of the 315 contracts and noted that, in some cases, there was no apparent linkage between the project and the value to the tourism sector.

The report highlighted that the construction of a netball court and football field was done under TIP for little more than $3.1 million at Summerfield Community Centre in Clarendon North Central in 2015-2016. The then member of parliament (MP) was Pearnel Charles Sr.

In 2017-2018, a little more than $7 million was spent under TIP in St Andrew East Central to repair fencing to the football field at Dunrobin sports complex and installation of an irrigation system, including pump and tank. The MP for that constituency is Dr Peter Phillips.

More than $4 million was spent in 2018-2019 on the Maverley Community Centre and to clean and bush Perkins Boulevard in St Andrew North Western under TIP. The MP for St Andrew North Western since March 2018 is Dr Nigel Clarke. His predecessor is Derrick Smith.

In 2016-2017, little more than $4 million was spent under TIP to rehabilitate the Waterford community park in St Catherine South Eastern. The MP at the time was Colin Fagan.

According to the auditor general, TIP was expected to address the insufficient spread of the benefits of tourism to communities within and outside the main tourist areas, assist in improving access to some of the areas where attractions are located and assist in the diversification of Jamaica’s tourism product.

“Hence, we expected TPDCo to select and prioritise projects based on established criteria that align with the company’s main objective of enhancing the tourism product and offering the best value for money spent,” Monroe Ellis said in her report.

The auditor general also reported that she was unable to determine whether the 60 selected contracts were completed on time because of the absence of completion dates and actual completion certificates.

At the same time, the TPDCo and Ministry of Tourism technocrats are expected to explain how executives at the agency were recruited without the requisite minimum qualifications.

For example, the management of the tourism-based state agency may be asked to comment on how its destination assurance manager for Kingston was employed on June 1, 2020, with a basic pay of $3,168,053 and travelling allowance of $1,697,148. However, the officer only has three CXCs and a GCE pass while holding a position that requires a minimum qualification of a master’s degree in tourism.

In her report to Parliament, the auditor general said her department found no evidence that TPDCo engaged a transparent process for the selection of 11 of the 24 executive-level staff, including senior positions such as the then executive director, contrary to the company’s own human resource management and development policy manual.