Private donation to constituencies channeled inappropriately - Mitchell

Howard Mitchell, Chairman of the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal, is raising concern about a donation to the 63 political constituencies for the purchase of care packages for needy Jamaicans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness last week announced that Chairman of Sandals Resorts Gordon "Butch" Stewart had donated $500,000 to each constituency.

Mr. Holness said the donation will go to the Consolidated Fund, after which it will be channeled to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and disbursed to Members of Parliament.

Mr. Mitchell, speaking Tuesday on Radio Jamaica’s Beyond the Headlines, criticized the use of the Consolidated Fund as a channel for what he argues is essentially a donation to politicians.

The Consolidated Fund was never intended for such purposes, he said, asserting that it was mostly for money received “through the various executive functions of the government – through the Collector of Taxes, the customs area, the tax administration… but this is for a stated, almost political purpose.”

He conceded that donations from abroad has at times been funneled through the Consolidated Fund, but maintained that the latest development was a departure from even that practice.

Mr Mitchell, a former president of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica, suggested that any charitable foundation wishing to make donations beneficial to “the people of Jamaica,” it should do so through the agencies that are established for that purpose, such as the Ministry of Labour & Social Security, the Social Development Commission.