Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

Strachan

Legal experts from the Attorney-General's Chambers are assisting the Cabinet Office with its campaign to collect over $100 million in default payments from more than two hundred beneficiaries who have failed to honour obligations of service to the country under the Government's Scholarship and Assistance Programme.

The huge bill was highlighted by Adrian Strachan, Auditor-General, in his report for the financial year ended March 31, 2006. Mr. Strachan also found the Cabinet Office wanting for its handling of the programme's accounts.

"At the time of audit the delinquency level of beneficiaries not serving their period of bond and those who had defaulted in paying the penalties imposed could not be determined due to the unsatisfactory state of the related record keeping," Mr. Strachan noted.

He added, "This prevented assessment of the extent to which persons who breached the training conditions were being appropriately sanctioned."

However, Mr. Strachan pointed out that he was subsequently advised that steps were being taken to improve the record keeping. Figures provided by the Auditor-General in his report showed that at October 31, 2006, delinquent beneficiaries owed close to $140 million in default payments.

Current policy

The Scholarships and Assistance Unit in the Cabinet Office's Corporate Management and Development Branch told The Gleaner that the current policy requires that persons be bonded for periods of between two and five years. The exact duration is determined by the cost of the course.

"The awardees' obligation is to provide service. Cost and payback only become an issue if the awardee failed to serve the obligatory period of service in full or in part," read a section of a written statement provided by the Unit.

While the manhunt is on, the bonding policy, which is currently under review, is expected to receive an overhaul to guard against future abuse.

"Discussions have been held with major stakeholders including the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Office of the Auditor-General, the Solicitor-General and the unions and some major changes will be effected once approved by the Cabinet," the response further stated.

Since scrapping the programme, which aims to offer scholarships and assistance in select disciplines to public sector workers as well as private individuals desirous of being employed in the public sector, is not an option, the unit said it would continue to aggressively pursue the collection of the default payments.

Recovery process not easy

However, the recovery process has not been easy. Nicole Foster-Pusey, director of litigation in the Attorney-General's department, said cases are usually referred to her team when the Scholarships and Assistance Unit faces difficulty in collecting the outstanding amounts. "There seems to be quite a number of persons who have monies outstanding (and) there are challenges locating a number of the persons, especially if they have migrated overseas and the last address that we have is not their current address," explained Mrs. Foster-Pusey.

The senior litigator said the recovery process has really proven an uphill task, as some cases have been in the system for a number of years. She also said that her administration would not refuse help in tracking down some of the delinquents. "In certain circumstances we really would need help because there are instances when it has been difficult to locate the persons," she explained.

However, Mrs. Foster-Pusey, who has been working along with a team of persons on these cases for three years, pointed out that they have been successful in a number of cases.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com