Go after them! Government to sue teachers for broken bonds
Published:Wednesday | March 27, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
200+ teachers owe the Gov't more than $400m
THE ATTORNEY General's Department is reportedly preparing documents to serve lawsuits on more than 200 teachers who have broken their bond arrangement and collectively owe the Government more than $400 million.
And this time they do not have the backing of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) because its president, Clayton Hall, is urging the Government to go after the delinquents and/or their guarantors, and recoup the outstanding sums.
"Persons who enter into that kind of arrangement do enter into a legal arrangement to upgrade themselves and they should, in turn, return to the education system so that it can benefit from having invested in their education," Hall told The Gleaner in an interview yesterday.
A strident Hall argued that any teacher who refused to honour his obligation should face the consequences and be made to repay the amount owing with interest.
"That is the pro-teacher position because more of our members want to use the facility to upgrade themselves and these unscrupulous persons would have made it impossible because they would have used up the money and would have made it impossible for other persons to benefit," Hall commented.
He suggested that the Government should go after guarantors who were also government workers.
At a meeting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday, senior director for human resource and administration in the Ministry of Education, Diane Campbell, said the ministry had asked the attorney general to prepare the lawsuits for the delinquents.
"We are preparing those lawsuits because our efforts to do the recovery have failed so far," Campbell said.
Stinging criticisms
At the same time, senior technocrats from the education ministry yesterday soaked up a flood of stinging criticisms from members of the PAC over their handling of issues relating to teachers who have broken their bond agreements.
PAC members castigated ministry officials for being ill-prepared to answer questions relating to a chronic delinquency problem among some teachers who owe the Government about $410 million.
Controversial lawmaker Everald Warmington, a member of the PAC, described the technocrats' failure to address critical issues raised by the committee as the worst performance he had seen during a committee meeting.
"It is disappointing and insulting that we have this kind of performance before us today. No preparation has been done. What are we sitting here to do? We come here to waste time?" Warmington questioned his colleagues.
He charged that the technocrats should be sent back to their ministry and prepare themselves before returning to the committee.
Minutes later, a seemingly frustrated Warmington left the meeting and did not return.
Elaine Foster Allen, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education who recently took up her appointment, could not provide information on how long the $410 million has been outstanding.
Should have done it
Committee members also appeared annoyed that the ministry was unable to provide information on how many of the teachers were still employed to the Government.
"I do hand on heart declare that we should have done it before; it has not been done and we need to get on with the job of doing it," the permanent secretary conceded.
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis reported that 212 teachers had failed to honour their agreements by breaking their bond after taking study leave with full pay.
Of the 212 delinquent teachers, 54 per cent or 114 did not make a single payment to reduce their obligations to the Government.
However, it could not be ascertained from education technocrats the ratio between those who honoured their bonds and those who flagrantly breached the terms of the agreement.
Foster Allen said the ministry had managed to collect $10 million from some delinquents in recent times.
She divulged that only one person was "in charge of the bonding process", noting that this was insufficient to carry out the required duties.
The majority of the outstanding sums owed to the ministry was mainly interest which was charged at a rate of 25 per cent.
She said paralegal clerks were recruited to review the files, look at amounts owed and why persons defaulted.
The permanent secretary said 96 files would be reviewed. "Since the beginning of this month, we have two lawyers working on some legal issues."
However, committee Chairman Audley Shaw demanded a full report from the ministry on the education bond issue in the next two weeks.