… US$13 m from Operation Grow accounted for
JAMAICA Tourist Board (JTB) chairman, Dennis Morrison said Wednesday that the agency could now account for all of the US$13 million allocated for the Operation Grow programme, which was launched in mid-2001 to counter the spate of bad publicity that was then being experienced by the island.
The negative press was due, in large part, to the west Kingston violence that claimed the life of 27 people, including a policeman and a soldier, and the injury of 40 others.
Morrison said Wednesday that his statement can be verified by a report from the Auditor-General’s Department on the programme.
That report followed last August’s audit of the programme by the JTB’s internal auditor, Colin Greenland, on instructions from former tourism minister, Portia Simpson Miller. Greenland’s investigation was said to have uncovered instances of improper business practices, and could account for only US$6.8 million of the US$13 million allotted to the programme.
But Morrison stressed that all the funds have now been accounted for.
“This report was submitted by the attorney-general (Adrian Strachan) in November. And contrary to some allegations that have been made, the auditor-general didn’t find that there was some money missing. There is no US$6 million missing,” Morrison told reporters.
But he admitted that the report had revealed evidence of “looseness” in the management of the funds to the extent that there were instances where money had been allocated without the requisite procedures being followed. In other cases, he said, proper records of allocations were lacking. But the JTB chairman said the outstanding items such as missing receipts have since been added to the records and the focus was now on tightening up the operations.
“The corrective actions to deal with those weaknesses that have been identified are being taken, as we speak, both in the offices in Jamaica and abroad,” he said.
Morrison stressed that there was no evidence to suggest that anyone had been guilty of fraud.
“There was no sign from that audit of any individual or individuals being guilty of any fraudulent actions or anything of a criminal nature. I want to put that on record as a fact and I want to say again there is no missing money,” he said.