OPPOSITION Senator Floyd Morris wants a response from the Jamaican Government about paying its portion of the US$200-million debt which is reportedly owed by regional countries to The University of the West Indies (UWI).

Speaking in the annual State of the Nation Debate in the Senate last Friday, Senator Morris said that by raising the issue there, he was giving Minister of Education, Youth and Information Senator Ruel Reid an opportunity to make a distinctive statement on the matter:

“Already, we have been seeing students being deregistered from the institution because of the inability to pay, and some can’t even register,” Morris, who was recently appointed by the Caribbean Community (Caricom) as a special rapporteur on disability, said in his first major contribution to a Senate debate since his appointment.

He told the senators and a gallery full of high school students he has been reliably informed that the UWI has some serious differences with the Jamaican Government as to how much is owed.

It wasn’t clear whether he wanted to know just how much is owed by the Government, or was referring to the entire $200 million which the UWI claims it is owed regionally, which has been the subject of discussions at the Caricom level. However, he claimed that the Jamaican Government is insisting that it owes the UWI no money, in a context in which, he says, there is an established agreement that students are supposed to pay 20 per cent of their tuition fees and their governments the other 80 per cent.

According to him, there has been an established mechanism for sharing the economic costs since the 1990s. However, he claimed that since circa 2008, when there were some economic challenges, the Jamaican Government started to pay “a one-off grant” to the institution, which has led to the debt accumulating over time.

“We are now hearing that the Government doesn’t owe the institution any money… If this is so, have we abandoned the 80/20 split in terms of sharing the economic cost? And, if that is so, what does that mean for students at the institution?” Morris asked.

However, while it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that Senator Morris found it necessary to mention the debt issue facing The UWI, where he holds the position of director of the Centre for Disability Studies at Mona, it was disappointing that the opportunity was used to question the Jamaican Government’s contribution to the university’s budget and not to raise the issue of the way forward for the relationship.

Caricom governments contribute at least half of The UWI’s budget — last figure I saw was 49.9 per cent in 2012 — and Jamaica is heavily involved in those payments. But, what is even more important is whether The UWI tries hard enough to meet the targets set out in its 2012/17 strategy plan, or if it is simply determined to continue with the burdensome dependency on the countries in the region.

This would be after the 2012/17 strategy had recognised that funding the institution was becoming too much of a burden for these governments, and had projected improvements in reducing its reliance on their contributions to the institutions over those five years.

In addition, the university was required to restructure its capital base by encouraging more private sector equity participation and introducing systems to promote more efficient use of its resources.

Over the period, The UWI was expected to look at trends and future plans, including: Online distance programming, both regionally and internationally; franchising programmes and courses to regional and international institutions, especially in the areas where it has a competitive edge; seeking increased partnerships with the private sector; and encouraging greater use of ICT for its administrative activities to reduce administration costs.

Senator Morris, with his close relationship with the UWI and now with added responsibility at Caricom, could be the consummate spokesman for the institution by encouraging a more responsible role for the university, rather than criticising governments in the region for failing to observe traditional contributions which are increasingly a burden on their economies.

Senator Reid, himself a past principal of one of Jamaica’s most distinguished secondary institutions, is quite capable of responding to the questions but, hopefully, should take the debate a step higher and deal with the need for the UWI to start behaving like a 70-year-old institution rather than foetus dangling from the umbilical cord of Caricom.

Incidentally, while on the issue of UWI debt, it was interesting to note in the Auditor General’s Department’s most recent Performance Audit Report on the Student’s Loan Bureau’s (SLB) Loan Management, which was recently tabled in Parliament, the following quote:

“SLB has been unable to generate sufficient cash from its core lending operations in order to fund its loan disbursement obligations. Consequently, SLB relied heavily on Government subsidy, multinational borrowing and encashment of investments to fund its activities. For instance, Government of Jamaica subsidy, as a proportion of total loan disbursement, rose to 91 per cent or $3.1 billion in 2016/17 from 13 per cent or $0.4 billion in 2012/13. As a result of Government interventions, SLB’s cash position improved from $234.6 million as at March, 2013, to $2.1 billion as at March, 2017.”

Incidentally, the SLB, in a response to the auditor general in May, 2018, referred to a 2012 consultant report, which pointed out that: “Even if delinquency was reduced to zero, the revolving (loan) fund would not be able to revolve and be self-sustaining.”

The consultant also reported that, “in order to be sustainable, an annual injection of funds is required to facilitate achieving its mission of a revolving loan fund”.

Police search

While the media has been focusing on two basic issues arising from the current meetings of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament reviewing the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organizations) Act, 2014 or the anti-gang legislation — access to cellphones and two-week detentions — there is an absolutely necessary provision missing from the Act.

According to the submissions from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), “there should be a provision for the search of premises and the seizure [of items] found therein”.

I doubt there are many Jamaicans outside the force and the legal profession who knew that!

According to the JCF, “The ability to search premises for evidence of the commission of an offence is a vital tool in the investigation of any criminal matter. It is therefore recommended that a provision be inserted which allows for the police to search premises in circumstances where there is reasonable cause to suspect that evidence relating to the commission of an offence under the Act is located, and to seize and detain any items found”.

Many of us thought that all the cops had to do was to identify themselves and we would have to let them in.

Well, now the JCF is recommending that the authorisation to search premises should reside with a member of the force, of or above the rank of inspector, who shall — on being satisfied that there is reasonable cause to suspect that evidence relating to the commission of an offence under the Act is located in the premises — have the authority to authorise any constable to enter and search said premises.

However, a similar provision is found in the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Firearms Act, which allows a sergeant to give instructions in writing to a constable to enter and search premises.

We thought it was bad enough when Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn disclosed in May that there is no “expressed provision” in the legislation that allows law enforcement authorities to obtain a search warrant for accountants and other “silent partners” who are helping gangsters finance their criminal lifestyle.

She noted that, unlike the Dangerous Drugs Act or the Firearms Act, the anti-gang legislation makes no such provision.

“So what they have to do now is use the regular, common law where, for example, they are approaching a house and gangsters open fire at them. That’s a felony, and that enables the police to knock down the doors and enter that house and get evidence,” Llewellyn explained.

Llewellyn also questioned what would happen in cases where investigators have credible information that the gangsters have a separate location, in an upscale community, from where they direct their criminal activities.

She admitted that the police could go through the Proceeds of Crime Act or other related legislation, but felt that allowing the police to get a search warrant would be far better.