Ruel Reid Fired

In an unprece­dent­ed and unex­pect­ed move, Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness has fired Education Minister Ruel Reid.
Reid has also resigned from the Senate.

In a state­ment to the Nation Holness said the fol­low­ing.
This morn­ing I met with Minister Ruel Reid regard­ing cer­tain alle­ga­tions in the pub­lic domain.
In keep­ing with the prin­ci­ples of good gov­er­nance, I request­ed and received Minister Reid’s res­ig­na­tion. Minister Reid has also resigned from the Senate.
The Minister’s res­ig­na­tion will ensure that any inves­ti­ga­tion into mat­ters of con­cern will not be in any way imped­ed by his pres­ence or over­sight of the Ministry.
The Ministry of Education Youth and Information will now fall under the tem­po­rary super­vi­sion of the Office of the Prime Minister which will start its own review of the min­istry and its agencies.

According to local report­ing, the Auditor General’s Department is cur­rent­ly under­tak­ing a per­for­mance audit of the depart­ment.
It was, how­ev­er, the polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion which is cred­it­ed with rais­ing ques­tions amidst reports of mis­use of pub­lic funds and cor­rup­tion at the edu­ca­tion min­istry and sug­gest­ed that it was equiv­a­lent to the scan­dal uncov­ered at Petrojam, the state-owned oil refin­ery. Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips, speak­ing dur­ing a post-Budget press con­fer­ence, said the alle­ga­tions are relat­ed direct­ly to Caribbean Maritime University and the use of funds sent to the min­istry by the HEART Trust for the Career Advancement Programme as well as the Technical, Vocational, Educational and Training (T‑VET) Rationalisation Project.(Jamaica Geaner​.com)

It is that kind of over­sight which the coun­try must encour­age rather than the tit-for-tat, back and forth which has char­ac­ter­ized oppo­si­tion par­ties behav­ior pre­vi­ous­ly.
Although there is far from suf­fi­cient infor­ma­tion in the pub­lic domain for a rea­son­able con­clu­sion to be drawn, the actions of the Prime Minister in fir­ing Reid, tells us that the sto­ry is seri­ous enough despite the PM’s con­tention that the min­is­ter’s removal will ensure that any inves­ti­ga­tion into mat­ters of con­cern will not be in any way imped­ed by Reid’s presence.

I urge the Prime Minister to call in the Police to con­duct a free and fair inves­ti­ga­tion even as the Auditor General’s office is work­ing on a par­al­lel track.
One inves­ti­ga­tion will not impede the oth­er, and should not be seen as anti­thet­i­cal to each oth­er.
Regardless of the out­come, the law must take its course. If breach­es of the laws are found fir­ings are not enough.
The full force of the law must be brought to bear as it would for any oth­er Jamaican.
It is about time that those entrust­ed with pub­lic posi­tions of trust under­stand that pub­lic offices and pub­lic posi­tions of pow­er are not oppor­tu­ni­ties to get rich.
It would also demon­strate that the Prime Minister is com­mit­ted to the rule of law and does not believe that the laws are only there for some people.

In the mean­time the Opposition PNP issued the fol­low­ing state­ment under the sig­na­ture of the oppo­si­tion leader Peter Phillips.

Statement on the Matter of Corruption at the Ministry of Education and Related Agencies
Dr. Peter Phillips, PNP President and Leader of the Opposition
March 20, 2019.
The hasty removal of the Minister of Education is in response to our demand at the Press Conference on Monday, March 18, 2019, for a full inves­ti­ga­tion of activ­i­ties at Ministry of Education in light of cred­i­ble reports of cor­rup­tion, nepo­tism and mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of pub­lic funds involv­ing the Ministry of Education and its asso­ci­at­ed agen­cies. Our report indi­cates the depth of the can­cer of cor­rup­tion and dis­hon­esty engulf­ing the Holness Administration.
Reports received indi­cate that not only the cen­tral Ministry but agen­cies includ­ing the Caribbean Maritime University, the National Education Trust and the HEART Trust which was sub­se­quent­ly trans­ferred to OPM have all been impli­cat­ed in the web of cor­rup­tion.
This is the 2^nd senior Minister of Government that has been forced to resign in less than a year under the shad­ow of cor­rup­tion affect­ing agen­cies for which they have been respon­si­ble and account­able. We should remem­ber also that inves­ti­ga­tions in the Petrojam scan­dal by the National Integrity Commission and MOCA are still not com­plet­ed. Furthermore, the Prime Minister who had car­riage of the Ministry of Energy has still not pro­vid­ed the rel­e­vant doc­u­men­ta­tion to the Parliamentary Committee.
I am again call­ing upon the Auditor General and the National Integrity Commission, as well as secu­ri­ty agen­cies includ­ing JCF, MOCA and the Financial Investigation Division (FID) to ful­ly inves­ti­gate the alle­ga­tions which have caused the Minister’s res­ig­na­tion. We expect them to act with integri­ty and urgency to hold those who broke the law account­able.
Indeed, we note that the Prime Minster has not yet said what was the basis on which he asked for the res­ig­na­tion of the MOE and we are call­ing up on him to do so imme­di­ate­ly.
Also, in light of dis­turb­ing reports, that the Security agen­cies are being ham­pered in the con­duct of their inves­ti­ga­tions, we are call­ing up on all the heads of the Security agen­cies to act with integri­ty and urgency, mind­ful that they rep­re­sent the line of defense against wan­ton cor­rup­tion and the abuse of tax­pay­ers mon­ey.
The People’s National Party stren­u­ous­ly objects to the Prime Minister’s deci­sion to take the Ministry of Education with­in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and sub­ject to the Prime Minister’s per­son­al con­trol.
First of all, the Ministry of Education is much too impor­tant to be giv­en par­tial over­sight in the con­duct of day-to-day activ­i­ties, which are absolute­ly essen­tial to the future of our nation’s chil­dren.
Secondly, the expe­ri­ence of the role of the Office of the Prime Minister in its man­age­ment of Petrojam does not give the coun­try con­fi­dence.
We can­not for­get the infa­mous Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in Petrojam which was done under Prime Minister Holness’ watch. He is yet to table all the doc­u­ments linked to the res­ig­na­tion of the for­mer Human Resource Manager at Petrojam, nor has he pro­vid­ed the rel­e­vant advice that the lawyers gave to Petrojam on this mat­ter.
The coun­try can­not afford the Office of the Prime Minister to act once again to cov­er up the mis­deeds of Minsters. The peo­ple of Jamaica deserve much better!

This sto­ry is devel­op­ing and may be updat­ed as more infor­ma­tion becomes available.