KINGSTON, Jamaica — Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Colette Roberts Risden, who over the past few weeks has come under severe pressure relating to information contained in the report from the Auditor General has spoken out in defence of herself and ministry staff.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament this morning Roberts Risden in a prepared statement said the discussions regarding the state of affairs within the ministry has seen many “negative comments about (her) character and the staff” by people “who seem intent on making a name for themselves at the expense of others”.

“One publication wanted you to first believe that $49 billion was misappropriated, this represents six per cent of the country’s budget I guess when they realised (it was not probable) they changed to $3.3 billion,” she said.

“Why would people use words to manipulate information to paint such an inaccurate picture? Let me restate there is no $3.3 billion missing,” the permanent secretary stated.

“The public discourse over the last few weeks due to wrongful interpretation of facts has been very discouraging and demoralising to many members of the staff and myself…I will not sit here and confound you and knowingly mislead, the ministry is not perfect but we are certainly far from the picture painted,” she added.

Alicia Dunkley-Willis