News Briefs

Reid, Pinnock judicial review decision Dec 24

 

The Supreme Court has reserved its ruling in the application for leave for judicial review by former education minister Ruel Reid and president of the Caribbean Maritime University, Dr Fritz Pinnock, until Tuesday.

The matter was heard in chamber by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes.

Reid and Pinnock are attempting to have the criminal charges brought against them quashed.

The men are contending that the Financial Investigations Division (FID) was not empowered by law to bring the charges against them and, therefore, acted illegally.

They further contend that the FID is purely an investigative body and does not have the legal authority to bring charges or obtain a fiat from the director of public prosecutions to prosecute them.

Reid; his wife, Sharen; their daughter, Sharelle, as well as Pinnock and Brown’s Town division Councillor Kim Brown Lawrence, were in October arrested and charged following a yearlong corruption probe into the education ministry and CMU.

They are scheduled to return to court in relation to the charges on January 23, 2020.

 

Brimmer Vale High to be renamed after former MP

 

The Brimmer Vale High School in St Mary will be renamed the Wycliffe Martin High School.

The announcement was made yesterday by Karl Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, at the post-Cabinet press briefing.

Martin became member of Parliament for St Mary Central in 1962 and made significant contributions to the development of the constituency and the parish in general, said Samuda.

 

 

More trucks, sweepers deployed in garbage clean-up

 

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) is ramping up efforts this Christmas season to deal with the expected increase in garbage, especially in town centres.

Executive Director Audley Gordon said that the authority has deployed more garbage trucks and added more than 400 street sweepers in the clean-up campaign.

“I am sometimes wondering if we have the population number right, because at Christmas, everyone is out, and they do quite a bit of littering, unfortunately. So, the town centres are a mess at the close of play.

"We have ensured that we put in the requsite number of sweepers right across Jamaica to treat with that excess garbage that we will encounter,” Gordon said.

 

$152b in circulation, BOJ projects

 

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is projecting a $2.4-billion increase in total currency in circulation during December to $152.4 billion, relative to the sum in November, in keeping with heightened activities associated with the festive Christmas season.

In a statement on Tuesday, the central bank said that the projection represents a 14.1 per cent increase, compared to 20.4 per cent for the corresponding period in 2018.

The BOJ noted that the forecast is generally consistent with the five-year average growth of 17.6 per cent for December.

According to the BOJ, net currency issued between December 1 and 13 this year stood at $1.2 billion (0.9 per cent), which was $1 billion lower than the corresponding period last year.