Pathway Technologies Limited, a 288-seat outbound call centre which benefited from $105 million in funding under the now defunct INTEC fund, has been placed into receivership.

The National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) last Thursday dispatched John Lee of PricewaterhouseCoopers to the firm and Pathway now joins several other firms that have floundered under the government’s failed programme to generate 40,000 jobs within the sector.

Pathway Technologies was established in February 2002 by principal shareholder, Jamaican/ American businessman, Victor Lowe. Located in The Towers, at Dominica Drive in New Kingston, the firm employed 220 people.

In announcing the receivership yesterday, the NIBJ – the government agency that disburses and manages the INTEC fund – said that Pathway had ceased operations last September “after experiencing difficulties in collecting revenues from several international customers”.

However, Wilfred Bagaloo of PricewaterhouseCoopers yesterday told the Observer that there were plans in the making to refloat the operation.

“Within the next week-and-a-half we hope to finalise a few contractual agreements that will facilitate the restart of the company’s operations fairly shortly,” he said. The new investor, he added, was “a well-established overseas firm in the call- centre business”.

The NIBJ also said that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with this investor, the receiver, and Pathway’s major shareholder, with the new investors scheduled to “commence their due diligence before the end of this month and operations expected to resume before the end of the quarter”.

NIBJ president Rex James said that the failure of some companies that were initially funded under the INTEC programme did not represent a total loss.

“The good thing is that some of these failures are providing opportunities to attract a second wave of investment in the industry by stronger, more experienced and more well-established operators,” said James.

The INTEC programme – an initiative of former Industry, Commerce & Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell to jump-start the information, communications and technology sector – ceased operations last year after several beneficiaries failed to make good on their loan commitments. Under the programme, funding was available for companies in the sector for the development of infrastructure, and the training of employees.