TWO of the country’s bright younger accountants, Dennis Chung and Douglas Chambers, are likely to be asked to join the board of directors of one of the largest state-run companies, Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), sources told the Sunday Observer.

The announcement of the new board is expected to be made by the minister of transport and works Mike Henry sometime this week.

The JUTC has, over the last few years, racked up billions of dollars in losses. For the financial year 2004/2005 its losses came to $745 million. The following year, 2005/2006 the losses fell to $677 million.

The former minister of transport and works, Robert Pickersgill, admitted in a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee earlier this year that the JUTC’s losses had accumulated to $2.4 billion up to 2005 when government wrote off about $1.4 billion. The losses for this year came to J$1.2 billion. The new government has vowed to stem the losses and turn the state-run company into a profitable one by effective management and getting more people onto buses.

According to our sources, the new Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government is exhibiting a penchant for chartered accountants as it seeks to take a more forensic approach to the country’s financial affairs.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service Don Wehby is a chartered accountant and is expected to apply his acumen to the financial management of Jamaica, which has a debt to GDP ratio of 130 per cent with a total debt of $1 trillion, the sources added.

Chung, a chartered accountant, was the former financial controller of KFC and Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB). He has also served as a commissioner of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC). In more recent times he has become one of the country’s leading financial analysts and writes a weekly column for the Observer.

Chambers is the managing partner of Chambers Henry & Partners. The firm was established in 1994 and is one of the larger local accounting, auditing and business advisory firms in Jamaica. Chambers is a member of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) and the Association of Chartered Accountants of England (ACCA).

He was admitted as a member in public practice of both the ICAJ and the Public Accountancy Board of Jamaica in 1990, as one of the youngest persons of that time. At 42, Chambers has some 20 years experience as an accountant. He attended Kingston College and St George’s College.