Culture Minister to address damning JCDC audit report - Williams
Published:Wednesday | December 9, 2020 | 12:11 PM
Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, is to address the findings of a damning audit report on the operations of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC).
Minister of Education, Youth and Information Fayval Williams told journalists this morning at a post-Cabinet press briefing that the Government was aware of the 2019 audit, the findings of which The Sunday Gleaner revealed in a two-part report.
READ: Audit flags millions in overpayments, questionable hirings, expenditure at JCDC
“I know that the commission [JCDC] has been examining, interrogating it, and in due course, there is every expectation that the minister responsible for the JCDC would make a fulsome report,” Williams added.
Last week, members of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee signalled that they would be inviting the leadership of the JCDC to explain its management of taxpayers’ money in January 2021.
The audit highlighted, among other things, the employment of Enid Harrow, a close associate of Grange, for a job already being performed by a staff member, contract payments before work completion, and seemingly routine overpayments.
Little more than a week ago, the JCDC said the document obtained by The Sunday Gleaner “contains inaccuracies”, labelling it “an incomplete draft that sought clarity and information in the preparation of the audit report.”
“The disclosure of this internal confidential document breaches operating procedures and seems to be motivated by malice and ill will,” said board chairperson, Mexine Bisasor, in a statement.
Two members of staff urged the auditor general and the Integrity Commission to “step in immediately”, even as they lamented the state of affairs at the main government agency tasked with promoting the Jamaican culture.
The audit was done by the JCDC’s internal audit unit and its findings submitted on March 15, 2019, to Daffodil Thompson, then interim executive director of the agency.
“Red flags” and “discrepancies” that emerged while an assessment of payroll records was being done triggered an examination of procurement, human resources, salaries, asset and office management, accounts, and parish office operations.
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