Administrator General gets failing grade from Auditor General

Department only able to close 19 per cent of the case files over a four year period

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis has accused the Administrator General’s Department (AGD) of failing to ensure strict adherence to the Administrator General’s Act, in carrying out its duties.In her 2012/13 report tabled in Parliament last Tuesday, the Auditor General suggested that in order to strictly observe the provisions of the Act, the AGD needs to keep complete and accurate accounting of all transactions with respect to estates and trusts vested in or administered by that government department.She said that her office has been encouraging the AGD to consummate the proposed acquisition and implementation of the trust and estate management software (TEMS), as soon as possible. Additionally, she said, the management of the department should aggressively pursue delinquent tenants to collect outstanding rent, while devising strategies to alleviate vandalism and squatting on the related properties.The position of the Auditor General was influenced by her department’s 2012/13 audit of the Administrator General’s Department, which revealed a number of flaws including:As at May 2013, the AGD was administering approximately 8,000 estates, of which 4,332 (54 per cent), valued at approximately $405 million, were categorised as backlog. “These 4,332 estates comprised of cases dated between 20 to 70 years after the death of the estate owners,” the Auditor General explained.She also pointed out that, while the AGD implemented a project in 2009, to reduce the number of backlog cases, over the four-year period, 2009 to May 2013, the department was only able to close 1,075, or 19 per cent of the case files.“At the current average rate of 864 backlog cases per year, it may take AGD at least five years to clear the existing backlog,” she commented.The Auditor General also found problems with arrears in Estate and Trust Accounts and delayed payments to beneficiaries. She noted that the AGD is in breach of the Administrator General’s Act, by not updating estates’ records on a timely basis.“As at September 4, 2013, 945 estate accounts were in arrears for periods of up to three years. We found that AGD’s inability to locate related ledger cards and the volume of transactions being processed manually, contributed to the delays in updating the estate accounts,” she stated.She added that this will impede the department’s ability to determine the true value of each estate account in its portfolio at any given time.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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Administrator General gets failing grade from Auditor General

Going for a higher grade

LAURENT ‘Tippy’ Alfred was only six years old when reggae superstar Bob Marley died in May 1981. Despite his youth, he grasped the occasion’s magnitude and developed an enduring passion for reggae music.

Tippy is founder and principal of I Grade Records, located in St Croix, one of the territories that comprise the United States Virgin Islands. The company is one of the leading sources for reggae in that region.The 39-year-old producer started the company in 2001 and has worked with a number of acts from St Croix, including the Midnite band, and singer Danny I.I Grade has also produced songs and albums by artistes from neighbouring St Thomas, the best known being singers Pressure Buss Pipe and Niyorah.While soca and hip hop are popular on his island, Tippy says “roots-reggae has always been a big part of our culture”. The sound that Marley made universally appealing during the 1970s is also the focus of I Grade’s 47-album catalogue.Midnite, a quintet led by Antiguan brothers Vaughn and Ron Benjamin, is the label’s flagship act with nine albums. Their latest production, Beauty For Ashes, is scheduled to be released in February.Tippy speaks highly of Vaughn Benjamin, the younger of the brothers.“He’s probably the most prolific songwriter in reggae. He’s got so much to say.”Though not many Jamaican acts performed in St Croix when he was a boy, Tippy says that never stopped him from discovering militant bands like Steel Pulse and cutting-edge productions of Jamaican roots luminaries, including Augustus Pablo, Yabby You and King Tubby.The St Croix reggae scene has grown considerably in the last 10 years, thanks to the emergence of domestic acts like Midnite and WSTX FM 100, a 24-hour reggae radio station.For all that progress, Tippy hopes I Grade will spread its wings beyond the US Virgin Islands.“We are never satisfied. One of the things we are looking for is stronger links to the Jamaican market,” he said.I Grade has attempted to do just that. Tippy visited the Jamaican capital Kingston this year and recorded at the Marley family’s Tuff Gong studio with neo roots-reggae singer Jah9 and drummer Style Scott of the famed Roots Radics band.There is no let-up for Lauren ‘Tippy’ Alfred and I Grade Records in 2014. In addition to Beauty For Ashes, albums by Pressure Buss Pipe and Jamaican singer Lutan Fyah are expected to be released in the first quarter of the year.

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Going for a higher grade

Schafer gets passing grade from local colleagues

NEW German coach Winfried Schafer once again came in for high praises, while the Reggae Boyz were hit

hard for their lack of commitment and cohesiveness by local coaches Calvert Fitzgerald and Jerome Waite.Jamaica battled to a 1-1 draw with Costa Rica and are still rooted to the bottom of the hexagonal with four points with only a mathematical chance of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Finals.Both Costa Rica, on 15 points, and leaders USA with 16 points following their 2-0 blanking of Mexico, have secured their berths to Brazil 2014.Honduras, on 11 points, are out of the Reggae Boyz’s reach, but both Panama and Mexico on eight points each, are in sight for that fourth play-off spot.Veteran coach Calvert Fitzgerald, the man in charge of Rivoli United, believes Schafer’s counter-attacking tactic was the best suited for the occasion, contrary to popular belief that a desperate all-out attack for maximum points would be the ideal thing.“We started slowly and were playing on the break and I didn’t have a problem with it. Costa Rica being at the head of the table going to the World Cup at this stage must have been a very good team, so I didn’t expect us to come and play open football against them,” argued Fitzgerald.“Being that Costa Rica is a good attacking team, if we could catch them on the break, then I thought that was our only chance of victory,” he pointed out.“If we had played open football they could have burnt us because they have some extremely quick and skilful players in attack. So we had to hold, it wasn’t the prettiest idea, but we had to try to catch them on the counter,” he reiterated.“I thought the plan worked to near perfection except that a most unfortunate mistake by the goalkeeper cost us. We finally got the goal that we wanted but we had let in a goal,” Fitzgerald added.He pointed out that despite Jamaica’s gloomy position, a draw against Costa Rica, can be seen as a positive in light of the fact that it was the top team in the group versus the bottom-placed team.“So to get a point from that team must mean that we are doing something better than we were doing before. Had we had this form from the beginning of the hexagonal round maybe we would be right up there with the top teams,” said Fitzgerald.Meanwhile, Waite, the coach of Charlie Smith High School, puts the blame on the players for Jamaica’s current predicament.“The time that the coach get the team we can’t expect any miracle. But the present crop of players are not playing a system, but individuals doing their own things,” said Waite, who led Arnett Gardens to back-to-back Premier League titles in 2001 and 2002.“In the defensive third, the workload will be a lot cause they spend more time defending while in the midfield (and) there are so much room for improvement there. They are playing in spurts and not playing cohesively as a unit, while upfront, I can’t find a word for it, but it’s one of our downfalls. There is no teamwork, we are not working together collectively… the transition is too slow,” emphasised Waite.He added that “there is too much room for improvement” knowing that the players are professionals and “I have to wonder, what they are really doing at the professional level,” he said.“This coach has not been given the opportunity to spend time to work with the players. He has the knowledge towards the game he knows what a system is all about and the little time that he is here he knows that Jamaica cannot play the 4-4-2 format,” said Waite.“So he took the time out, analysed the individuals and made the adjustment and played three in front of the goal, compact the midfield and find two players who hopefully can get the job done,” he noted.Reggae Boyz striker Marlon King (left) gets by Costa Rica’s Christian Gamboa during their World Cup qualifying match at the National Stadium on Tuesday night. The game ended 1-1. (PHOTO: GARFIELD ROBINSON)

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Schafer gets passing grade from local colleagues