AUDITOR General Adrian Strachan has raised a number of concerns about the operations of the Universal Access Fund Company Limited (UAFCL), a government-owned company frequently criticised by the Opposition for its lack of transparency.

The UAFCL was established in May 2005 to collect the universal service levy from telecommunications companies. It also manages the funds for disbursement to Cabinet-approved projects. This development followed the introduction locally of universal access in voice telephony and universal access to data via the Internet.

The fund has so far accumulated more than $1.4 billion from the levy.

But in his annual report (2005/2006), tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, Strachan said that the arrangements under which the company operated “improperly excluded parliamentary control”.

He said that the company has been advised to bring funds derived from the universal access levy in full compliance with the requirements of Section 114 of the Constitution, and Section 7 of the Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAAA), which require that government revenues be paid, forthwith, into the budget.

The Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce (MITEC), under which the UAFCL falls, admitted that legislative changes are required to exempt the levy from the budget, but continued to skirt the budget although the legislative changes are yet to be made.

Strachan also raised concerns about the lack of a proper mechanism to verify whether the $1.4 billion the company received from the levy between June 2005 and July 2006 was the full amount due to it.

He also noted that a member of the board, Minette Palmer, an attorney-at-law and telecom advisor to the minister, Phillip Paulwell, who sits on the board of the UAFCL, is partner in a legal firm, Palmer and Walters, which was paid $23.3 million, between June 2005 and June 2006, to provide legal and other services to the company.

He said that his audit revealed that there was no evidence of a contract setting out the deliverables and agreed rates for the legal firm; no evidence that payments were made on the basis of deliverables in keeping with written terms of engagement; and no indication that the selection of the legal firm was done on a competitive basis, or with the approval of the National Contracts Commission or the cabinet.

At last November’s annual conference of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), deputy leader Audley Shaw claimed that one firm, later identified as People’s Telecom, owed the fund $25 million. Subsequently, the chairman, Dr Herbert Thompson, who succeeded former information and development minister, Senator Colin Campbell last year, admitted that two firms actually owed a total of $50 million.