The Police on Thursday night attempted to seize barber shop equipment stored at the Tucville, Georgetown home of former Director of Sports Christopher Jones.
However, the Police had no warrant to carry out the search and seizure and will guard the house overnight and return Friday morning with the warrant.
An audit conducted showed that the Ministry of Social Protection approved the disbursement of $4.9 million under the Region Four administration for the procurement of equipment for a barbershop under the Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme.
A Financial Return presented revealed that the full amount was spent by December 31, 2019, but almost $1 million in items were not actually delivered and the project was not executed and some of the equipment were stored at Jones’ home.
Details of the purchases were:
Item Quantity Amount
Apollo Professional barber chairs 18 2,556,000
Condensing unit 208/230 Voltage Air Handler Single Piece Electric Kit 10Kw 1 1,528,000
48” x 48” 6mm Mirror 18 144,000
2” x 2” Gypsum Ceiling Tiles 732 370,000
10ft Main Tee 140 87,000
2ft Cross Tee 710 181,000
10ft Wall Angle 22 8,000
VAT 14% 111,000
Total 1641
$4,985, 000
An examination of the payment voucher and Regional Procurement and Tender Administration Board (RPTAB) Minutes revealed the following:
- a) Approval was not granted from RPTAB for the procurement of a Condensing Unit valuing $1.528M. However, audit checks revealed that the item was still purchased and supplied.
- b) PV № 74005202 remained on the list of outstanding cheque orders for 2019. Further, audit checks revealed that the cheque was paid to the supplier on 2 October 2019. However, at the time of reporting in August 2020, items to the value of $900,999 were not supplied. The table below provides a summary of the outstanding items:
Item Quantity Amount
48” x 48” 6mm Mirror 18 144,000
2” x 2” Gypsum Ceiling Tiles 732 370,000
10ft Main Tee 140 87,000
2ft Cross Tee 710 181,000
10ft Wall Angle 22 8,000
VAT 14% 111,000
Total 1622
$901,000
- A physical inspection of the assets purchased revealed that items valuing $4.084M were still not put into use, since these items were stored in a room at the residence of the beneficiary Mr. Christopher Jones. Details are in the table below:
Item Quantity Amount
Apollo Professional barber chairs 18 2,556,000
Condensing unit 208/230 Voltage Air Handler Single Piece Electric Kit 10Kw 1 1,528,000
Total 19
$4,084,000
- Details of a letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social Protection dated 22 May 2019, states that the items were to be procured for the beneficiary who ‘operates’ a barber shop.
However, at the time of the physical verification it was discovered that the beneficiary does not operate a barber shop, since construction of the said barbershop has not yet commenced as can be seen in the image below:
WOW!! Lampy on the go, boy! Cut he hair close down and put he up at camp street fuh spend some time. 🙂
I tell ya bhai…….the worst part is this initiative was a good one….it should have gone to somebody who actually needed the money to start a business not some high paid Govt employee who pun a hustle.
Absolutely! Another person in need is denied help. It’s really outrageous.
This must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.