No food in the fine print

A former Universal Service Fund (USF) legal officer yesterday testified that neither of the agency’s contracts with the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) nor with a private training institution made provision for meals for participants in an unattached youth training programme.

Instead, she said participants received a monthly stipend of $10,600 from USF, paid fortnightly, to assist with transportation and the purchase of meals.

“I am not seeing anything in this agreement which indicates that CMU should provide meals to the TAP (Technology Advancement Programme) participants,” the witness told the court when asked about the university’s contractual obligations.

She added that there was nothing in the agreement requiring CMU to engage another party to provide meals.

The witness, an attorney, told the court that CMU had been contracted to provide three-month training in data collection and ICT and that she had created the contract.

The witness, who served as USF legal officer and acting corporate secretary from June 2017 to August 2020, was giving evidence in the fraud trial involving former CMU President Professor Fritz Pinnock, Jamaica Labour Party councillor Kim Brown Lawrence, former Education Minister Ruel Reid, his wife, Sharen, and their daughter, Sharelle. She was led by attorney Nickeish Young Shand.

The charges against the accused stem from allegations of a scheme to siphon more than $25 million in public funds through fictitious employment arrangements, contracts and invoices between 2016 and 2019. They have pleaded not guilty.

WHAT IS TAP?

The witness explained that TAP was launched in 2017 by the USF in partnership with the then Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology. The programme targeted 1,000 unattached young people between the ages of 18 and 35 who were not engaged in employment, education or training.

The first tranche began in March 2018 and ran for a year, while the second started in 2019 and ended in 2020. CMU was contracted to provide a three-month course in data collection, with participants receiving certification from the university.

She further testified that training was conducted at CMU facilities, USF’s community access points and other locations rented by the agency. These included the Institute of Vocational Education and Skills Training (INVEST), which was contracted to provide three classrooms at its St James’ location.

The witness identified the agreement between the USF and CMU, signed by then chief executive officer Suzette Buchanan and Pinnock, as well as a separate agreement between the USF and INVEST, signed by Buchanan and the institution’s owner, Jonathan Myrie. The documents were admitted into evidence as exhibits 18 and 19, respectively.

She also testified that, on September 9, 2019, Inspector Brenton Williams visited her office and took a statement concerning the USF’s engagement of CMU. She handed him copies of both contracts, an invoice for INVEST’s final payment, the TAP course outline and training records for 54 participants who were trained at the St James institution.

When asked about her knowledge of the stipend arrangement, the witness explained that she reviewed participants’ attendance registers to calculate their entitlements based on the number of days they attended training. The figures were then submitted to the finance department for payment.

Asked whether the USF had engaged Brown Lawrence to provide meals, she said, “To my knowledge, Kim Brown Lawrence was not engaged by USF to provide meals to TAP participants.”

She also said Brown Lawrence had not been engaged by the USF to provide meals for participants trained at INVEST.

During cross-examination by Senior-Smith, the witness said she did not know Brown Lawrence and had not encountered her name in any USF contract. She also said she was unfamiliar with Optimum Customer Service Consultancy and Joseph Martin.

KNOWLEDGE NOT LIMITED

However, she acknowledged that the CMU agreement did not prevent the university from subcontracting duties to third parties.

She also accepted that the agreement did not detail how the programme was to be operationally implemented.

The witness, however, rejected the suggestion that her knowledge of TAP was limited to its general framework, explaining that she helped review course outlines and attendance registers and attended training sessions approximately once a month in 2019.

However, she admitted that she did not attend training sessions in 2018 and had not included some aspects of her involvement in her witness statement. She estimated that approximately 12 training programmes were conducted in any given month.

The testimony comes against the background of earlier evidence from a former CMU executive, who spoke about the Career Advancement Programme-Youth Empowerment Services (CAP-YES), an initiative targeting at-risk youths. He testified that Pinnock authorised monthly payments of $425,000 to one woman for 12 months, from March 2018 to February 2019, and seven monthly payments of $470,000 to another woman, from August 2018 to February 2019. He said the documents originated from the university and were among those handed over to police investigators.

At the end of the former legal officer’s testimony, Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell asked Pinnock whether he had any questions for the witness. He indicated that he did but said he was deferring to his attorney, Hugh Wildman, who was absent from court.

The trial will resume on Monday.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com