KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr, says the ministry has robust internal mechanisms to detect and correct any weaknesses that may exist in its operations.

Charles advises that these mechanisms are “currently being engaged to make sure that if there is an incident, we could identify it [and] if there are weaknesses, we can identify [these] and then we address [them]”.

He was speaking during Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

Charles disclosed that a scheduled routine internal audit of all the ministry’s programmes is being undertaken “to identify any weaknesses and, more importantly, to make sure that we can address and strengthen our programmes as our effort is always to improve”.

However, in response to a question, he indicated that the ministry is not engaged in a fraud probe.

“Any potential or possible matter of fraud or any activity which is untoward, is something that we take seriously and that we would be examining. That is why we actually have an annual internal audit, and we have had a scheduled routine audit taking place, which is in completion now, because the ministry, like other ministries, has a process of inherent accountability which we at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security take very very seriously,” Charles underscored.

He pointed out that the ministry is open to utilising external support to assist in any investigation.

“If it is that there is a belief that there is an incident or incidents of fraud, we are the ones that want to identify it… so we expose ourselves for external support to identify that,” Charles added.

– JIS